The impact the first encounter/class can have on students, and how to make students feel comfortable in the classroom
with new students coming set the tone with a great first impression and try to make the classroom feel warm and welcoming. As an instructor, give a brief history about yourself so students can have a better sense of what you are about on a personal level. Engage students and get to know them personally by name recognition, appearance as well as by means of name tenting. Spend the first day explaining, course, syllabus and expectations and the other half by getting to know each other with an open discussion, e.g., tell me about yourself, etc.
I once had A Respiratory Instructor tell me... always learn names, means you respect someone enough to care. If you don't show respect, you will not receive any. Also, Make things seem more personable for each student. Always attempt to engage your students in the class.
Note cards are a good idea. Course outline with questions.
Get to know your class and build rapport.
It is important to take time to introduce yourself and allow your students to introduce themselves, take time to review the syllabus, class rules up front
Faculty and student introductions are a great activity for the first day of class.
It is important to have the ability to motivate and keep the students involved in their own success in the class.
Its important to let the students know about you and learn each students name.
That you can motivate students by providing them with the belief that performance is related to rewards. This would be good to structure some of the objectives around.
Helping everyone to become more comfortable in class by learning names and short introductions is very helpful. Day one has a lot of information for students so cover the most important information in-person, follow up with additional information in the next class if needed.
Learning student names is extremely important, along with finding some things in common to discuss outside of classwork. But, the methods discussed seemed dated. Not sure how old this training is, but asking people to write their names, numbers and addresses on a piece of paper or taking photos doesn't seem likely these days. I would think it's all digital now, but with diversity and inclusion, some people may feel odd about it.
I learned that I need to make sure to take the time to thoroughly go through the syllabus on the first day. Sometimes, it is easy to assume the students will read through some of the policies themselves, but they usually do not. I also learned I need to add more personal information about myself and why I got into dental/teaching.
Students want to feel comfortable and that they are learning something valuable for their futures. introducing yourself and your expertise along with asking students to meet their peers will help to set that level of comfort and value in your classroom on day one.
The way you introduce yourself will establish your position as a classroom leader.
Making a to-do list before class can help you be more productive and efficient, while ensuring that you do not miss anything important
That it is good to have ice breakers and get to know everyone as well as letting your students get to know you a little bit. It helps to show that you, as the instructor, are human and it helps the instructors get to know who the students are.
It is important to learn students names and how to pronounce them correctly!
Comment on Tikeama Buckingham's post:
I find it challenging to quickly learn the names of the individual students. I have given them large index cards and asked them to write their preferred name on it. Also, I've given them multiple colored markers so they can decorate the card if they want to. That has helped me learn their names sooner and some students have really enjoyed the artistic effort.
Choose a fun topic to discuss on the first day of class and during introductions.
