Teaching: Day One

I just finished my first day as an officially credentialed and paid teacher. The paid part is really nice :) Oh, and I couldn't ask for a more perfect schedule. I teach in a 4x4 block school (4 periods, 90 minutes each period). So, I teach first period-90 minutes. 2nd period is my prep, which means a free 90 minutes. Then I teach 3rd period. Have a 30 minute lunch, the 4th period. It's very nicely paced out this way.

Day One - The goal was to get to school an hour early in order to soak it all in, get my bearings and be totally prepared. I got there only 15 minutes early, which still worked out fine. The first day went over pretty well. I think the biggest thing that went wrong was a miscommunication on student schedules. This caused my students and my roomate's students (we all share classrooms there) to be in the opposite classes, so we had them do the switcheroonie and all was well.

The first day of school is kinda dull. All business: Course outline, rules, standards, expectations and learning about eachother. I opted to not do some touchy-feely, get to know your neighbor thing. Instead, I let the students ask me any questions about me that they would like. I let them know they have to be appropriate questions. The questions are always the same. First and foremost they want to know my ethnicity. I look "mixed", though my family/heritage is Jewish from Poland. Next they want to know my age, am I married or single or dating, music I like, movies, hobbies, siblings, etc. It's actually a great way for the kids to get to know me and provides me a fun way to let the kids know that I am accesible and friendly. I don't want to seem like this scary entity that they are afraid of. Teaching English is unique in that we are constantly sharing our ideas, opinions, views, etc. Because of this, we all need to be able to communicate comfortably in the classroom. Additionally, reading books like "To Kill a Mockingbird" provides a forum in which we are discussing sensitive and sometimes upsetting issues; therefore, a sense of trust of me and others is important.

After they question me, I have them fill out a student info sheet so I can get to know them. This asks some pretty basic questions about what they like to do in their free time, books they like, movies, etc. The one unique thing is that I put a picture of them on this sheet. This part is also sort of fun because I love seeing what pictures they bring me.

So, all in all, my first day went pretty darn smooth. No complaints from me :)