麻豆传媒入口

At the start of the school year, sometimes parents would forward me their kids鈥� first-day-of-school photos, and some of them were pretty creative. One year a mom sent me a shot of her son holding a small whiteboard with the words: 鈥淗elp me! I have ten more years of these pictures!鈥� Another year a dad shared a photo of his backpacked kids standing beside their pool and pretending to cry while he floated on a raft, cocktail in hand. My favorite first-day photo wasn鈥檛 a kid鈥檚. It was a colleague鈥檚. In it, he held a handwritten sign with the date and the number of years he鈥檇 been teaching. The sign said: 鈥淚 can鈥檛 believe I let my wife take this.鈥�

Without a doubt, the first day is the most important day of the school year. It鈥檚 the day teachers begin to introduce rules, establish routines, practice procedures, and learn which kids need to be moved to a different seat. Of course, it鈥檚 the day you meet your new students. I liken the start of school to an arranged marriage. You don鈥檛 know whom you鈥檙e going to meet. The difference is that in an arranged marriage, you get only one new set of parents. At school, you get dozens.

The first day of each new school year, my morning routine was always the same. I鈥檇 wake up before the alarm clock went off because I was excited. I鈥檇 put on the freshly ironed dress shirt and slacks that I hadn鈥檛 seen in two and a half months. I鈥檇 slip on dress shoes that I hadn鈥檛 set eyes on since June. And every year I would have to knot my tie a couple of times till I got it right because I was out of practice.

I like first days of school. I like their freshness: the new clothes and school supplies, the new backpacks and haircuts. But most of all, I like the first-day buzz. All schools have different kinds of excitement: field trip excitement, Friday-before-break excitement, snow day excitement, school play excitement. My favorite is day-one excitement. Every start of school has a palpable wish-I-could-bottle-it excitement in the air. In most jobs, there鈥檚 only one first day. In teaching, you get one every year.

As much as I enjoy the first day of school, it鈥檚 always a shock to the system. One day it鈥檚 summer, and the next, it鈥檚 Bam! Pow! Wham! You feel like you鈥檝e been thrown into a Marvel comic. In twenty-four hours, your brain goes from summer mode to overdrive. There鈥檚 no transition, no easing into it. It鈥檚 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鈥檙e 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 ran 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鈥檛 devote a lot of time to day one. And so I will share with you some of the 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鈥檇 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. 鈥淧lease stand if you鈥檝e been teaching for ten to fifteen years,鈥� I will say. Many teachers rise. 鈥淣ow stand up if you鈥檝e taught between sixteen and twenty years.鈥� 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鈥檛 fathom making it that long. Before the last group sits back down, I smile at them and say, 鈥淭o all of you who are standing right now, there is nothing I am about to say that you don鈥檛 already know. You may go to the back of the room and get a cup of coffee.鈥� Well, the same applies here. If you鈥檙e a veteran teacher, you have many first days under your belt and will already know what I am about to explain. You wouldn鈥檛 have made it this long if you didn鈥檛. 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, 鈥淵ep, that鈥檚 how you do it.鈥�

Guidelines and Goals:聽To start, I鈥檇 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鈥檚 best to be organized, clear, confident, and, if possible鈥攁 little funny. Kids like funny. It sets them at ease. It鈥檚 also important that you do what works for you. Don鈥檛 do what someone else does because you think you鈥檙e 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:聽Before the first day of school, plan the whole day thoroughly. So much will happen that you don鈥檛 want to be worrying about your plans. Leading up to the first day, it鈥檚 a good idea to keep a checklist, so that you don鈥檛 leave anything out. (A friend of mine has a T-shirt with the following back-to-school checklist: 鈥淧ens. Check. Paper. Check. Sanity鈥擭o Check.鈥�) And it鈥檚 always better to overplan than to not have enough. What you don鈥檛 use on day one, you can use the next. Also, have all your materials ready to go. You don鈥檛 want to be scrambling during your breaks. You鈥檒l 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鈥檒l want to do at the end of the first day is have to make plans for the next one. When day one鈥檚 over, you鈥檒l 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鈥檙e 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, 鈥淕ood morning!鈥� 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:聽After you鈥檝e walked your students to the classroom, stand at the door and tell them to look for their desks with their name tags. Don鈥檛 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, 鈥淚鈥檒l take good care of them.鈥�

Your Kids鈥� First Task:聽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鈥攏othing 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鈥檛 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:聽Once the children are settled, it is time to introduce yourself. Tell them your name and write it on the board. I鈥檇 say, 鈥淢y name is Mr. Done. It rhymes with phone. It is not Mr. Dunn. And鈥濃�攚ith a half smile and half don鈥檛-you-dare-call-me-this expression鈥斺�渋t is not Mr. Donut.鈥� It would get a laugh. Then tell the kids a little about yourself. There are many ways to make an introduction, of course. One intriguing 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鈥檙e reading, a photo of your dog doing something funny. An autobiography in a bag. It鈥檚 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 鈥渢hree,鈥� 鈥渞ed,鈥� and 鈥�8:00,鈥� the kids would have to guess that I have three siblings, red is the color of my car, and eight o鈥檆lock is the time I would likely be in bed that night.

When your students are introducing themselves, instead of the standard 鈥淪hare your favorite _____鈥� 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 鈥渂oring鈥� 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, instead of the typical autobiography, ask them to write what they didn鈥檛 do over the summer. Kids get a kick out of this. Examples: I didn鈥檛 ride a unicorn. I did not win the lottery. I did not make a video with Taylor Swift.

Excerpted from聽聽by聽笔丑颈濒濒颈辫听顿辞苍别. Copyright 漏 by聽笔丑颈濒濒颈辫听顿辞苍别. Reprinted with permission of the publisher, Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster.