Send a message to your new class about what’s expected right from the get-go. The quicker you set a culture of kindness, respect, and high-bar work expectations, the easier it will be to maintain.
So during that first hour of the first day of school focus on the following three classroom management strategies.
From the moment you first greet your students, give of yourself—your smile, your openness, and your genuine happiness that each of them is a member of your class.
Your kind, welcoming spirit provides warmth, safety, and relief to first-day jitters. It jump starts the leverage-inducing power of your likability. It’s the first salvo in the Law of Reciprocity.
It also makes the next strategy go down a lot smoother.
Immediately after taking attendance, jump right into your classroom management plan—whether in-person or online version. You’ll only be giving an overview. However, that doesn’t mean that you’re just going to read it aloud.
No, you must show its importance through your emphatic tone and body language and enthusiasm for its purpose. Even though you’ll model your plan in detail throughout the week, you still must be demonstrative.
Show your devotion for THE most important thing. It is, after all, what protects your right to teach and your students’ right to learn and love being part of your class.
It’s okay to take a short break to stretch, share something about yourself, or play a getting-to-know-you game. But then, in order to set your standards for listening, learning, and independence, you must teach an academic lesson.
But it can’t be any old lesson. You’re not going to ease your way into it or make it light and fluffy as so many teachers are wont to do.
You must teach the heck out of it. The lesson must be clear and detailed and focused on a single objective, on one thing you want your students to be able to do or to know.
This is your chosen profession, the grade level and subject matter you want to teach. So let it out. Be bold. Show your passion. Check thoroughly and spectacularly for understanding, and then turn responsibility for doing the work over to them.
These three, like legs on a stool, provide the foundation upon which you can create the best learning experience your students have ever experienced.
They establish your trust and likability, set non-negotiable boundaries, and happily shock them into what is required for success in school.
They shake the rust off months of being cooped up or stuck on the couch without purpose. They give them meaning and responsibility and something to look forward to.
But it starts with you during that first hour of the first day of school.
It’s in your hands. So be ready, and enjoy every second.
If you haven’t done so already, please join us. It’s free! Click here and begin receiving classroom management articles like this one in your email box every week.
Its really hard for me to think about teaching the heck out of a lesson on the first day. Could you give some examples for a second grade class? Reply
Kandie J KatoI agree, Heather. Academics is not the most important thing. Thos os a construct that is beat into our heads that assumes it’s the best way to grow a smart kid, when in fact it does the opposite. It turns children into little robots that can spout off facts and figures.
I’ve been so saddened to watch the light go out of children’s eyes who are made to sit there and do as they are told.
Creating an environment where kids feel safe and loved is what helps them to feel free enough to develop so they can grow and develop naturally. Reply
I agree that it is important to create an environment where kids feel safe and valued. But I am not sure why you interpreted the article as advocating for drilling and killing and demanding obedience from students. At the end of the day, students are in school to learn and grow. This includes social and emotional growth, but also academic growth. Creative thinking, problem solving, research skills, and personal exploration are all part of that. As Michael described, it is important to set the tone for the year that your class will be filled with learning and hard work. Again, “hard work” does not mean always sitting in a desk and filling out worksheets. Reply
Nancy StippichCreating a safe and loving environment is essential, Kandie. But that in no way excludes teaching the heck out of an engaging lesson! Think of one of your lessons that kids get totally engaged in. They WANT to learn more, and ask you if they can do it again. That’s the kind of lesson you want to tackle on that first day. That is what reminds them of their purpose in being in school, and allows them, on the very first day, to look forward to more of that kind of excitement in your classroom every day (well, most days!) this coing year. A lesson that comes to my mind that I think I will work in this year, is dissecting a gladiola blossom. It’s timely, intriguing, and they will get to see you model the behavior of a scientist: observing, asking questions, making connections, recording and labeling, explaining and using tools with care and respect. Start it off with a great book about flowers, and finish it off with their own colorfully illustrated chart of the parts and functions of plants. They will know they are safe, capable and loved! Reply
I have always found with first graders, that they expect to learn to read on the first day of school. If you don’t teach them to read something, they’ll be horribly disappointed in you. I usually do a shared reading of a little poem. I read to them and we look at the words together and notice some interesting things.
Then I give each of them their own copy of the poem written into a little book with no illustrations. I model adding an illustration myself and go over expectations for top quality drawings. When they’re done drawing, they practice reading the little book to themselves and that night their homework is to read their little book to their families. Reply
