Right Now
The First Class
The first day of class is your opportunity to get the semester off to a good start.
Here are a few tips for making the most of that opportunity:
- Take time for introductions. Students will want to know something about you,
of course, but will also want to know about their classmates. You can have students
introduce themselves, or you can take five minutes and have students chat with someone
they haven't met before, then introduce each other to the rest of the class.
Along with their names, ask for other pieces of information, such as where they're
from, what they hope to get from the class, what they did over the last break,
an interesting fact about themselves.
- Review the syllabus. Make sure students are clear about the course goals,
grading criteria, and anything else you want to emphasize about the course.
Show the course website (if you have one).
Make sure students know where to find any material
you may be posting.
- Take a few minutes to ask students what they expect of you as a teacher.
You may be surprised that students will expect that you show up on time,
that you are organized, and that you know the material (which may make you wonder whether they
have had instructors that are late, disorganized and not masters of the course content …).
Students are also likely to ask for a sense of how quickly you will return e-mails or phone calls,
how quickly you will return graded material, how much feedback you will provide on graded material
and class participation, and other issues. Whatever comes up in this discussion, you have an
opportunity to make clear what you actually can and will do. Most students are very reasonable
in their expectations, so it's not too difficult to meet them, but something may come up that
you will want to respond to as a "learning moment." For example, if students say they expect
you to be open to different points of view, you may respond that you believe you are and that,
on matters of opinion, you hope they bring it to your attention if they believe you are not open -
but that all content in a class is not opinion, and that an important part of your role as
an instructor is to help them to understand when they are approaching a problem or issue
correctly or incorrectly.
- After discussing students' expectations of you, you can then make clear your expectations of them.
Here's the point where you can clarify your position on:
- Attendance.
- Being on time for class.
- Being on time with assignments.
- Missing exams.
- Academic misconduct.
It's also an opportunity for you to bring up your expectations for class participation,
openness and respect, laptops in the classroom, cell phone use, etc.
- Introduce some course content. Students are unlikely to be well prepared for
a first class meeting, even if you posted a pre-assignment, so plan the first class with
this in mind. If you can engage the students during the first class in an
exercise or in group discussions, this sets a tone for an engaging and interesting class.
Remember that student perceptions of instructors within the first few minutes
of the first class correlates very highly with their final perceptions -
so plan the first class carefully. Show a bit of who you are as a person.
Take your class seriously,
but don't take yourself too seriously - and remember to smile at least a little!
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