Summer is in full swing but football season is right around the corner! There are many exciting things about football but one of the most amazing days of the year is the first game of the season. You put your Eagles jersey on, you open up an ice cold, uh, soda, and you get ready for the game. There is never a guarantee that the Eagles will win but if they do and they do so convincingly, all is well! They’ve set the tone with a strong first game and although they will have to repeat that performance every week to stay with the top teams, they’ve established a strong foundation for the season ahead.
In the words of a famous author and good friend, if we cared about education the way we do about football, there would be no education problem in this country.
Just like the opening day of football, the first day of school is also among the most exciting of the year! Everybody is fresh, well rested, and ready to go. The students are happy to see their friends and believe it or not, they are looking forward to the school year ahead. Getting off to a good start is huge in the NFL and it is just as huge to your school year and nothing sets the tone for the school year like that first day lesson.
So the first day rolls around and the students enter your room. You could do an icebreaker and take a few minutes to learn some names. Then maybe you could explain the school rules and the rules of your classroom. After going over that, you go over lab procedures, notebook set up, grading, class supplies, your teaching philosophy and qualifications,, and maybe you even get to talk about the textbook a little bit. You finish up the lesson by going around the room and trying to learn some names again.
You could totally do that for your first day lesson…if you want it to suck!
Think about it…how many rules and regulations does the average student need to know in every class? How many different types of assignments to you give? How many specific things about notebooks and textbooks and labs do you need the students to know? There are those that have told you over the years to not even teach science for the first week but establish your routines. Remember the pizza pie method? When you have lots of information to present, you break up it. Not drown your students in an avalanche of administrivia…come on, man!
The first lesson of the year should be epic! You need to pull out all of the stops and do everything in your power to make sure your students can not wait to come back to your class tomorrow and every other day and yes…now I am going to tell you how to do it.
Step #1….Greet your class…in the hallway!
Have the class line up. Greet each student and ask them how they are. If you’ve been in the school for a while, you’ll know most of them anyway. Explain to the group that you are happy that they are here and you can’t wait to get started. Tell them your three basic rules…coming in quietly, raising one’s hand before speaking or moving, and to refrain from interrupting instruction. Then, explain to the class that they are to come in quietly and you will show them to their seats. There is a quick activity for them to start when they are seated. Ask something easy and reflective. Ask them what they are looking forward to learning about or ask them what life science is.
As the students are working, complement their work and hand them reward tickets to be used later. After going over everything, tell the class they everyone got a perfect score on the warm up and that everyone has an A in science. No student can ever say that they never had an A in your class…it is up to them to keep it.
Step #2 – Hook them for the school year
Break down the daily activities like you do every day and then show your class why science is awesome. Show that one video where a meteor blows up a city and go over some of the science behind it. Throw on the video games and have your students use the scientific method to predict the outcomes. Show some temperature data about climate change and use the scientific method to make predictions about future weather. Pull up interactives and have the class participate. Use every piece of technology in your possession and finish up with some clips from “Day After Tomorrow”. Don’t forget to sprinkle in some funny commecials to highlight the scientific method in real life.
Step #3 – Ninja teach your routines
Over the next week, include all of the things that the students need to know. Make sure they know on the first day what to bring to class. All of the other stuff can be worked in and the cool part is that the students will pay more attention because they haven’t been listening to rules and procedures for your whole class.
Step #4 – Make them want more
As you are getting to the exciting hollywood video clips, make sure that you ‘run out of time’ for the lesson and tell the class you’ll have to pick things up tomorrow. Sure, it’s not the best way to close out a lesson but you will accomplished your goal.
You love Summer Blockbusters! What would you rather go an see..an awesome special effects bonanza or a bunch of back story? Don’t be the boring prequel…the back story thing is nice but everyone knows what’s going to happen anyway.
Come out big! Reek of awesomeness and ooze with wow!
Make that first lesson the best of the year….
…until the next day..more on that later.
Get that good start and the rest of the school year will follow!
You can do this!