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Effective Teaching...
by Harry and Rosemary Wong
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This article was printed from Teachers.Net Gazette,
located at http://teachers.net.
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August
2000
There is Only
One First Day of School
Melissa Pantoja's first year as a teacher (see June
and July columns)
was so rewarding and such a learning experience that she said, "I'm so excited
about what I've learned in my first year of teaching. Next year will be a
great opportunity for me to make adjustments in my classroom management and
to use procedures that I have found to be successful. I have so many ideas
and I am eager to use them."
A New Start Every Year
Just as Melissa Pantoja can't wait to start another school year with ideas
she learned from her last year, Lee Gray says, "There is something inherently
special about our profession that allows us to close out a previous academic
year and plan for a new beginning-a sort of annual renewal, if you will."
That's the beauty of teaching; we get to start all over again each year.
You can't do this if you are a meteorologist or a salesperson. When school
starts this fall, or whenever, if you are on a year round school, you will
get a new group of students. You can do anything you want with them. The effective
teacher starts with a plan, a better and more reflective plan than the previous
year. The ineffective teacher does the same thing year after year, which is
why Einstein said, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again,
yet expecting different results."
The First Day of School
Douglas Brooks was teaching at the University of Texas-Arlington when he
wrote an article, "The First Day of School," for Educational Leadership in
1985. He said that most all new teachers start their teaching career without
having received any instruction on what to do the first day of school as well
as never having seen a first day of school as a student teacher. That's like
asking a pilot to fly a plane without having received any instruction on how
to take off with a plane nor having ever seen a runway at an airport. The
analogy is not so far-fetched when you see how many novice teachers begin
their first day of school.
The first day of school is the most important day of the school year. There
is only one first day of school and what you do can determine your success
or failure for the entire year. On this day the students form their first
impression of you. People in marketing know that you have seven seconds to
create a positive impression.
The uninformed novice teacher thinks that starting with a fun activity forms
a positive impression. Douglas Brooks wrote in 1985 that he video taped some
teachers on their first day of school and discovered that those teachers who
started with a fun activity spent the rest of the school year chasing after
the students. Whereas, those teachers who spent some time during the first
couple of days organizing the class so that everyone knew how the class was
structured and managed had far fewer discipline problems and had students
who were involved with learning.
In the same way that Melissa Pantoja started her class correctly on the
first day of school, Judie Gustafson, a high school teacher, did likewise.
Her plan can be found on page 172 in our book, The First Days of School.
Seven Things Students Want to Know
Douglas Brooks says that students want to know seven things on the first
day of school, thus, effective teachers plan their first day of school accordingly.
The seven things students want to know on the first day of school are
- Am I in the right room? For many students, who come from dysfunctional
families or challenging neighborhoods, school can be a safe and consistent
haven. Help the students to look forward to coming to school by providing
hall guides, signs, and welcome messages on the most important day of the
school year. The First Days of School states that we celebrate the wrong
day at school, which is graduation day. Many students never see their graduation
day and this may be because we never start them off correctly.
Teachers should be standing at the door, helping anyone who needs help.
A sign should be on the door as well as the chalkboard of the classroom
with the teacher's name and other welcoming and supporting information.
Check every registration card to be sure that the correct student is
coming into your classroom. Otherwise, help the student to quickly get
to the correct room.
- Where am I supposed to sit? You have two choices, open seating
or assigned seating. When the students enter the classroom of an effective
teacher, they all know where to stand, sit, or be. Thus, when you greet
your students at the door on the first day of school, you might want to
assign the seating for that day immediately. This can be done in many different
ways and suggestions are made in the book, The First Days of School, or
the video series, The Effective Teacher.
The hallmark of effective teachers is that they listen to their students.
A sixth grade student in Las Vegas said, "I like having assigned seating
on the first day of school. Sometimes you walk into a class where you
barely know anyone. Having assigned seats may not put you close to your
friends, but at least you won't feel like a loser because no one wants
to sit next to you."
If you want to make a good impression, invite your students to take
an assigned seat, much like a gracious host or hostess would invite you
in to sit-and offer you something to drink.
- What are the rules in this classroom? Every student knows that
he or she is to behave. They are just waiting for the discipline plan to
be revealed so that they know the limits on the classroom. Effective teachers
have a hard copy of a discipline plan ready for explanation. Every student
gets a copy, a copy should be sent home, a large copy needs to be posted
on the classroom wall, and extra copies are made available as new students
enter throughout the school year.
If you do not have a plan, you are planning to fail. Have a plan and
work the plan. For help with a discipline plan, read chapters 18 and 19
in The First Days of School, access www.MarvinMarshall.com, or read Cooperative
Discipline by Linda Albert.
- What will I be doing this year? Effective teachers manage their
classrooms with procedures, whereas ineffective teachers discipline the
students with threats and punishments. The key word to understand is "procedures."
Procedures have to do with teaching students what to do in the classroom,
such as what to do if the teacher wants the class's attention, what to do
upon entering the classroom, and how to make entries in a journal.
Effective teachers spend the first two weeks of school teaching students
how to be responsible for their behavior and their learning. Students
want to succeed and they want to be taught how to do things, but they
can only succeed if they are shown the procedure for how to do things.
Procedures will be explained in more detail next month (or read unit
C in The First Days of School).
- How will I be graded? Although it is perfectly understandable that
students want to know about their grade, the effective teacher is much more
concerned with getting the students to complete the assignments and passing
the tests. Grades are the after-effect of the assignment and the test.
Effective teachers do not grade using the "curve." In an effective classroom,
the students earn their own grade based on their mastery of the learning
criteria. It would be best to wait until day 2 or 3 to explain this concept
to your students or better yet, when you give them their first assignment.
We will discuss the assignment, test, and grading in subsequent months
(or read unit D in The First Days of School).
- Who is the teacher as a person? Many teachers take a small section
of a bulletin board and create a "personality bulletin board," which contains
a collage of personal items about the teacher, such as pictures and objects
about the teacher's life, work, and family. If you are a K-1 teacher, you
may find this more effectively done by placing objects about yourself in
a bag and pulling the objects out one at a time and discussing each-a teacher's
own show and tell.
We've had our students bring objects about themselves to be posted on
a personality bulletin board showing the students' work and their achievement.
Using this technique the message is made clear that every person in the
classroom is important.
- Will the teacher treat me as a human being? Everyone wants to be
treated with respect, dignity, and love, whether that person is a teacher,
administrator, or student. You have seven seconds to create that perception
beginning with
- how you treat yourself with respect, dignity, and love,
- how you greet your students at the door,
- how you dress,
- what signs are posted in your classroom,
- the message on the chalkboard,
- the obviousness that you are organized and ready, and
- that you are in control of the learning environment for the classroom.
The ineffective teacher is more concerned with doing "my thing" and can't
wait to start with a fun activity so that he or she can be the student's
friend or pal. The students are not looking for fun. They are looking for
security, consistency, respect, dignity, and care and you can convey that
message on the first day of school by conveying how well you are organized.
Your classroom management skill will tell the students if the class will
be exciting or boring, whether they will learn or fail, and if you will
light or blow out their candle.
Please Share With Us
Your kindness in sharing your first day of school organization or script
with us will be most appreciated. It can be E-mailed to us or sent to us at
Harry K. Wong Publications, 943 North Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View, CA 94043.
We wish all of you a very successful start to a new school year. We truly
believe that you can be a very effective teacher. This is because, each of you
are
- destined for accomplishment,
- engineered for success, and
- endowed with seeds of greatness.
Use the resources available to you to make this year your best ever year of
teaching.
Harry & Rosemary Wong products: http://harrywong.com/product
This printable version is provided for the convenience of individuals.
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