Conducting an "Icebreaker" exercise can be beneficial, not only for the instructor, but for the students as well.
I believe the first day is important because it set the tone for your class. Keeping in mind that while we are getting to know each other on personal level the instructor must keep it professional.
Meet the students as they come to class, do a meet and greet so everyone knows about you, be sure to be honest as to what will be expected from them.
I learned the importance of getting to know your students.
An effective teaching strategy is getting the class to know and grow comfortable with one another. Everyone introducing themselves, teacher included help ease the comfortability of meeting each other. After classmates meet each other, doing activities to grow comfortable with group activities and class interactions helps people feel that they are in a nice teaching space.
Comment on abegaille midoro's post: Once the student is aware of your expertiese and comfort with the course material they can feel a relief that what they can say to themselves "learning is on me!" Get to study and learn this material.
First day - fun days! I love getting to know my students! This is where we will chat, and everyone will get to know each other and myself included! I love telling my students about my life experiences - it shows them I am and was in the same place they are today! If I can do it, they can do it!
it's good to tell your students about yourself.
It's important to share about yourself and your experiences and start the class with clear information, and encourage students to participate.
A great start to a class makes it easier for students to be more comfortable with engaging and participating.
- perform proper classroom introduction
- Conduct class by using institutions guidelines
- maintain professionalism
- create dialog with class to show them you are interested in their advancement
- be trustworthy, be able to have confidence in your ability, skills, and the ability to relay this to your students
- ability to listen and act accordingly using established methods
The classroom environment should be comfortable ad welcoming. However, guidelines should be put in place as well as requirements of the course. Additionally, do not rush to try and fit everything in during the first class. It is better to be clear and concise and pick-up where you left off in the next session.
First day of class is important to get to know each other and to show what a great journey it will be to not be scared.
I can see how this information could be useful in a regular classroom setting. I work in a prison and my classes rotate through 8 sessions, on an ongoing basis, so there really is no first class. I also have a 1000 students a year so knowing them by name is near impossible. I could possibly incorporate some of this into the orientation class which is almost like a first class. We go over the entire program and they are given materials that are similar to text books and a syllabus.
Introducing myself at the beginning of the class is an important "break the ice" moment with the students and helps teacher and student to get to know one another.
The first class session sets the tone .
Introductions can help relax both the teacher and the students. It is important to greet students and learn their names as quickly as reasonable to show respect and to be personable.
I really like the idea of taking group pictures of students to help remember names.
I love the idea of the name tents and student information card. This is a great way to learn the students names and background.
Introducing yourself and your expectations of the class and how things will operate allows your students to get a feel for who you are. It is also important to have your students introduce themselves as well so you can learn their names, pronunciations as well as any nick names they may want to use.
