The Art of Teaching Children, page 7
As much as I enjoy the first day of school, it’s always a shock to the system. One day it’s summer, and the next, it’s Bam! Pow! Wham! You feel like you’ve been thrown into a Marvel comic. In twenty-four hours, your brain goes from summer mode to overdrive. There’s no transition, no easing into it. It’s like relaxing on a peaceful beach one minute, then getting slammed by a tsunami. One of the reasons the first day is such a shock for teachers is because we’re not in teacher shape yet. When the new school year begins, it will have been months since we ran to a copier, speed-walked to a bathroom, blew a whistle, raced to the blacktop because we forgot we had yard duty, or bolted across campus because we were late for a staff meeting. Even our teacher look is rusty.
Over my career, I had several student teachers, and during our time together, they always asked about the first day of school. They were unsure about what to do on this most important day. I guess Teacher Schools don’t devote a lot of time to day one. And so I will share with you the same first-day tips that I shared with them. Most of the suggestions are for the elementary grades, but many can be modified for middle and high school.
Before I begin, I’d like to say one thing to the veteran teachers who are reading this chapter. Whenever I speak to large groups of teachers, I often begin my presentation by asking how long they have been teaching. “Please stand if you’ve been teaching for ten to fifteen years,” I will say. Many teachers rise. “Now stand up if you’ve taught between sixteen and twenty years.” The first group sits and a different one gets up. This goes on until I ask who has taught for more than thirty-five years. When these teachers stand, the rest of the audience always gives them a round of applause. Some of the teachers who are seated will shake their heads with wide-eyed expressions because they can’t fathom making it that long. Before the last group sits back down, I smile at them and say, “To all of you who are standing right now, there is nothing I am about to say that you don’t already know. You may go to the back of the room and get a cup of coffee.” Well, the same applies here. If you’re a veteran teacher, you have many first days under your belt and will already know what I am about to explain. You wouldn’t have made it this long if you didn’t. So you have permission to skip the next few pages. Or, you may just want to keep reading so you can nod in agreement and say to yourself, “Yep, that’s how you do it.”
Guidelines and Goals
To start, I’d like to say that there is no one right way to run the first day of school. There are, however, things you can do to get off to the right start. Generally, on the first day, it’s best to be organized, clear, confident, and, if possible—a little funny. Kids like funny. It sets them at ease. It’s also important that you do what works for you. Don’t do what someone else does because you think you’re supposed to. On the first day, a teacher should have two goals. The first is to make your new students feel relaxed and comfortable. The second is this: When the children leave school, and their parents ask them if they like their new teacher, you want them to say yes.
Planning Your Start
Before the first day of school, plan the whole day thoroughly. So much will happen that you don’t want to be worrying about your plans. Leading up to the first day, it’s a good idea to keep a checklist, so that you don’t leave anything out. (A friend of mine has a T-shirt with the following back-to-school checklist: “Pens. Check. Paper. Check. Sanity—No Check.”) And it’s always better to overplan than to not have enough. What you don’t use on day one, you can use the next. Also, have all your materials ready to go. You don’t want to be scrambling during your breaks. You’ll need those to sit in the staff room and eat the donuts that the principal (hopefully) brought in. Before day one, try to have all your plans and materials ready for the second day of school as well. The last thing you’ll want to do at the end of the first day is have to make plans for the next one. When day one’s over, you’ll want to go home as soon as you can and crash.
Your First Meeting
If you teach grade school, chances are you will pick up your new students in line. Unless you’re teaching kindergarten, I do not recommend leaving your classroom open before school on the first day. You need your time, and some parents will want to corner you. After the first bell rings and the kids have lined up, stand at the front of the line with a big smile and say, “Good morning!” to your new class. If you teach the little ones, lots of parents will be standing around. Smile at them too. They will also be nervous.
At the Door
After you’ve walked your students to the classroom, stand at the door and tell them to look for their desks with their name tags. Don’t make children choose their desks. This makes kids anxious. Have their names already on them. As the children walk past you and into their new classroom, greet each child individually with a welcoming smile. After the last student is in the room and you start to close the door, turn to the parents who are still lingering and say, “I’ll take good care of them.”
Your Kids’ First Task
As the children find their seats, have something on their desks for them to do. It can be as simple as coloring a name tag, completing a word search, or drawing a picture—nothing fancy. Leave the directions written on the board or placed on their desks. This gives you a little uninterrupted time to take attendance, find out who is buying lunch, and collect all the boxes of Kleenex that the kids will pull out of their backpacks because tissues were on the back-to-school supply list. Of course, your new students won’t begin the activity that you set out for them until they have checked out their new desks, pulled out all their new school supplies from their backpacks, and figured out how far away their friends are seated.
Introductions
Once the children are settled, it is time to introduce yourself. Tell them your name and write it on the board. I’d say, “My name is Mr. Done. It rhymes with phone. It is not Mr. Dunn. And”—with a half smile and half don’t-you-dare-call-me-this expression—“it is not Mr. Donut.” It would get a laugh. Then tell the kids a little about yourself. There are many ways to make an introduction, of course. One compelling way is to pull items that represent you out of a bag and talk about them: a souvenir from a recent trip, a book you’re reading, a photo of your dog doing something funny. An autobiography in a bag. It’s also a nice way for your new students to acquaint themselves with one another later in the week. Another creative way to make your introduction is to write single words related to your life on the board and let your class guess what they mean. For example, if I wrote “three,” “red,” and “8:00,” the kids would have to guess that I have three siblings, red is the color of my car, and eight o’clock is the time I would likely be in bed that night.
When your students are introducing themselves, instead of the standard “Share your favorite _________” kind of introduction, try having them tell the class two true things and one that is not. The children have to guess which is false. Or ask kids to share one “boring” fact about themselves. This takes the pressure off of trying to think of an interesting one. My boring facts: I sleep on my side. I keep the water running while brushing my teeth. When eating fried eggs, I save the yolks till the end. Later in the week, if you want your students to write about themselves, rather than the typical autobiography, ask them to write what they didn’t do over the summer. Kids get a kick out of this. Examples: I didn’t ride a unicorn. I did not win the lottery. I did not make a video with Taylor Swift.
Getting Their Attention
I suggest that the very first thing you teach your new students is how you will get their attention throughout the year. There are many ways to do this: turning off the lights, playing wind chimes, even ringing a classroom doorbell. The call-and-response attention grabber, also known as a callback, is extremely popular in primary grades. For instance, the teacher might say, “Spaghetti,” and the children respond with “Meatballs.” Or the teacher calls out, “Macaroni and cheese!” and the students shout out, “Everybody, freeze!” One of my favorites: teacher says, “Scooby-Dooby-Doo”; kids, “Where are you?” You can use just one attention grabber or several. Choose whatever works for you. Most of the time, I would just say, “Eyes on me, class,” or “Eyes on the tie.” Often I’d simply say, “Could I have your attention, please?”
No matter which attention grabber you pick, do not begin speaking until all your students are quiet and looking at you. This is key. The number one mistake I see new teachers make (and even some veterans) is to start teaching before they have everyone’s attention. If your kids aren’t listening, wait—as long as you need to.
After you tell the class how you will be getting their attention, practice it. Let the kids pretend to be working at their desks, then call out your attention grabber. Students should stop what they’re doing, look at you, and freeze. Wait until all eyes are on you and every child is still. Then ask the children to stand up and walk around the classroom. Let them chat with their friends and have a silly conversation (“Peas and carrots,” “Carrots and peas,” “Peas and carrots?” “Carrots and peas!”) till you give your signal. Again, do not continue until every student is looking at you and is quiet and still. Repeat this a couple of times. For fun, challenge the kids to stop, look, and freeze even faster: “Okay, boys and girls, it took you five seconds that time.” Smile. “Can you do it in four?”
Play a Game
As soon as you can, get your students out of their chairs and moving. It gets the nerves out. I liked to play an icebreaker called People Hunting. It’s an oldie but goodie. For this activity, give each child a piece of paper with a long list of questions such as: Can you play chess? Did you go to the beach this summer? Do you have blue eyes? Do you know how to hula-hoop? Are you left-handed? And so on. After you say “Go,” the children scurry around the room with their papers, asking their new classmates the questions. If students answer yes, they sign their names beside the questions. (A child may sign the same paper only twice.) The purpose is to get as many signatures as they can within a certain amount of time.
A variation on this game is Back to School Bingo. Using bingo cards with the same type of questions written in the squares, kids find classmates who can sign their names in them. Of course, whatever game you choose, the teacher has to play too. (For the record: I can play chess. I have blue eyes. I can hula-hoop—a little.) When playing an icebreaker like this, you will already begin learning about your new students: who needs support, who’s shy, who has trouble reading, and also who your new spitfires are. These kids will be easy to recognize. They’re the ones standing on the chairs, shouting, “Is anyone here left-handed?”
Give a Tour of the Classroom
Sometime in the morning, give your students a tour of their new classroom and show them where things are: the student library, the computer cart, the supply table. Point out what they may touch and what they may not: marker basket, help yourself; goody jar, off-limits. When at the supply table, this might be a good time to give the Pencil Speech: “Pencils are for writing. We do not chew on them. We keep them out of our noses and ears. We do not write with pencils that are less than two inches long. You know those signs at amusement parks that say children must be a certain height in order to go on the ride? In our classroom, pencils have a height requirement too.”
Explain the Rules
On day one, it’s important, of course, to explain the classroom rules. There are two ways to establish them. One common strategy is to let students create them. The idea behind this is that by allowing kids to come up with them, there will be more buy-in. The second way is to set the rules yourself. I always chose to set my own. Doing so confirmed that I was the leader in the room. Children want their teacher to lead. Also, in my experience, students don’t buy in any less if the teacher makes the rules. In fact, some children prefer it. Furthermore, I found that kids who can be challenging respond better if the teacher says, “Here are the rules of the classroom.” Generally, I believe students should have plenty of opportunities to make decisions, just not when making the rules.
A great deal has been written about establishing classroom rules. The important thing is to set ones that work for you and your students. Keep them simple and positive. Emphasize what kids can do, not what they can’t. Make sure the rules are clear. And don’t have too many; I’d suggest no more than five. In my classroom, I had three main rules: (1) Be thoughtful to others (including the teacher); (2) Listen and follow directions; and (3) Raise your hand before speaking. (This applied to when I was working with large groups or the whole class.) We also had several supplementary rules for using the bathroom, sharpening pencils, and so on, but these three were the main ones. Children are generally good at following rules one and two. Rule three, not so much. Some years, if I had a really chatty group, I’d have to add rule 4: When I’m talking, you’re not.
After setting the rules, it’s very important that kids practice them. Let your students role-play what it looks like to be thoughtful and follow directions. Have the class practice raising their hands too. One fun way to go over this is to tell your kids that you’re going to ask them a question and would like them to raise their hands. Next, ask a simple question such as “What’s the name of the school?” All hands will shoot up. Make the children wait before calling on someone to answer. Then ask another question. This time when the hands go up, pause even longer. If you wait a really long time, the kids will look like they are going to explode.
When reviewing the rules, also allow students to demonstrate what not to do. To illustrate, have your kids show what being unthoughtful looks like by asking a few of them to form a line and let another student take cuts. Ask children to not follow directions too. To start, tell them that you’re about to give a direction that you don’t want them to follow. The kids will sit up brightly, excited about what’s coming. Next, ask the children to get out their math books. The giggles will begin as they happily do not take them out. Pretend to be upset that they aren’t following your direction. Then, once again, ask the kids to pull out their books. Say it more firmly this time. Listen to more giggles and watch shoulders bounce. In the same way, tell your students that you’re going to ask a question and permit them all to blurt out the answer at the same time without raising their hands. On hearing this, your kids will again sit up straight like pages in a pop-up book. Delay the question. When you finally ask it, they will gleefully shout out the answer. For children, being able to call out an answer without having to raise their hands is like being allowed to stay up way past their bedtime.
Of course, don’t think you’re finished reviewing your rules on day one. You’ll need to revisit them throughout the year. Good times to go over the rules are whenever you get a new student and when your kids return after a break. Actually, you will have to remind your students of the rules before most every break as well because children get squirrely before vacation. Don’t ever feel bad for having to review the rules. Kids need reminders. It’s normal.
Review Routines and Procedures
When you think about it, it’s mind boggling just how many routines and procedures are necessary to run a classroom. We have routines for lining up, entering the room, getting supplies, hanging up backpacks, handing in work, transitioning from one subject to another, checking out books, and even using hand sanitizer (more commonly referred to as “hanitizer” in kindergarten). My hanitizer procedure: one pump, not seven.
Routines are vitally important for a smooth-running classroom. Be sure to have a system for everything children do repeatedly in class. On the first day, talk about a couple of important routines that your kids need to know right away. Then add more as they come up during the first two weeks of school. Two routines that you will want to practice on day one are lining up and walking in line. On the first day of school, the hallways can get pretty crowded with single-file lines led by teachers. Oftentimes, these teachers are walking backward (a teacher talent) to make sure that their kids are doing it correctly. When Jill would parade her kindergartners through the hallways on the first day, she’d announce, “Make way for ducklings!” Of course, when she said this, a couple of her wise guys would quack.
Whenever you’re introducing a routine to children, practice the heck out of it. The more kids practice in the beginning of the year, the fewer headaches you’ll have later on. Begin by modeling exactly what it is you want them to do. Let’s say, for example, you are teaching your kids how to transition from their desks to the reading rug. Sit in a student’s chair and show them what you expect: Stand up, push in your chair, walk quietly to the carpet, and sit down. Children enjoy seeing their teacher act like a student. While you’re at it, have a child play the teacher and report how you did. Kids like that too. Next, ask one student to demonstrate the task as the rest of the class looks on. Then let a couple of children model it. Finally, invite the whole class. Kids don’t mind practicing routines. They have them at home. Also, tell students why you are asking them to practice. Explain that it will help their classroom to run smoothly and thus help them learn. Children appreciate being let in on your reasons for doing things. As with classroom rules, if at any time during the year you feel that a routine could stand improvement, have your students practice it again. Classroom routines need to be brushed up now and then. To add a little fun, when the kids are practicing, give them a score between 1 and 10. They’ll try to beat it.
