Day One: Learning the Procedures

For the first time in my teaching career I actually slept well before the first day of school. I was glad to wake up this morning with some butterflies and have some nerves. If those ever go away, it's a sign that the passion may not be there, and without passion I don't know if I can teach. Once the students needed help with their lockers and schedules, the rewarding feeling came back. 

 6th Grade Math Standards: MP.1 and MP.5. This may be a stretch, but the students opening their locks today would certainly go under the category of perseverance. Classifying the lock as a "mathematical tool" is also reasonable to me as the students need to adjust to a circular number line with intervals of five. Initially not all students can locate 38 on a lock. This video was rather helpful in adjusting to the procedure of clockwise, counter-clockwise, clockwise (although some students still started with counter-clockwise, clockwise, counter-clockwise). 

The Learning Objective: Recall the first five steps to entering the classroom.

Quote of the Day: "It's not that I'm so smart - I just stay with problems longer." - Albert Einstein

I've always given quotes as a way to begin my basketball practice, and have the intention of incorporating quotes frequently throughout this year. I have read in many educational literature that students are engaged with stories, and so often in mathematics I have chosen to ignore this. Einstein's quote is essential to my class (and the origins of this blog). 

The Agenda: 

1. Students entered the school in the auditorium.
2. The assistant principal reviewed the school's expectations and rules.
3. The students went to their homerooms.
4. The students were assigned seats (I like assigning seats - especially early in the year).
5. The students practiced saying my name (Sure - end - er)
6. We reviewed the classroom procedures.
7. If time allowed I reviewed my five classroom rules.

The Assessment: I quizzed students verbally on how to enter the classroom. They were able to tell me as a group the steps:

1. Get Hand Sanitizer
2. Get the jumpstart (warm-up problem)
3. Take your seat
4. Take out your homework
5. Sharpen your pencil (if necessary)
6. Start the jumpstart

I emphasized to students that I did not start class. They were the learners and it was their job to start class. 

Homework!?: No formal math homework today, I challenged all of the homeroom students to turn in more of their paperwork (health information, etc.) than the adjacent homeroom. The other teacher played along well. 

My Glass Half-Full Take: One student left his folder of forms that needed to be signed at his locker at the end of the day. Ten minutes later he came back and got it! Needless to say he got a high five and I loved the effort. 

Every student raised their hand when I asked if they wanted to be successful. I have defined success as reaching your own personal potential. This came from John Wooden, and I hope to reiterate this theme throughout the year in an effort to get students to forget about their peers and focus on individual improvements. I think they are going to buy into this and eventually see the rewards for this. 

Where I'd Throw the Red (Challenge) Flag: I wish I had used the word "strict" as a way to describe myself in all classes today. I did use it in one class. I like that word as a way of letting students know I take my rules seriously, and that like them I want everyone to be successful. 

I also wish I did a little less talking. I love Harry Wong's book The First Days of School (even though my version is about 15 years old), and in it Wong talks about the importance of resisting teaching content or a fun activity. He emphasizes that the first days of school are the most important days because students learn routines and procedures that will help them focus and utilize the maximum amount of classroom time to benefit their learning. I agree with him, but I presented these procedures in lecture format today, and just by looking at the class I sensed some boredom and disengagement.

 

How to Right the Wrongs: Sensing the disengagement, tomorrow I have a jumpstart problem. This will give me an idea of what students remember to get the jumpstart, and ultimately who came away mastering our objective today. The jumpstart is all about the rules and procedures of my classroom, which will serve as another assessment and reenforcement from the first day. I also will use the word "strict" as I review the class syllabus in describing how I intend to carry out rules.