Try to show students that you are human like them and try to create a productive learning environment so that the students feel more comfortable to learn.
Introductions and sgharing background information is important for understanding learning and teaching styles.
Get to know your students names and share with them your experience level.
Introduce yourself and have students tell something about themselves to facilitate getting to know each other.
The first impression for instructors starts the minute they enter the class and continues throughout the first class meeting. Through careful planning and preparation that first encounter can be one that helps the students understand what you expect and provides you with the opportunity to establish yourself as an instructor of quality and integrity
Show Time: at least 15 minutes early
Cohort Groups: don’t let the cohort group take control of what you want to accomplish. You are developing new history for the cohort group and after a few successful class meetings you will be perceived as being a part of the group’s professional history.
- Identify strategies for a successful first class meeting.
- Recognize ways of introducing class requirements to students
- Create a to do list for instructional planning.
- Select content and activities for starting a new class.
- Decide on instructional supports to improve student motivation
- Explain the role of the instructor during the first class meeting.
Some suggested things to cover in the first class
Introduction & Handouts:
- Introduce yourself and the course: write your name, the class name, and the class number on the board before the class begins. Introduce yourself, making a few short comments about your experiences in the field (a full introduction will come later when the class is introducing itself)
- Discuss your accessibility: let students know how and when they can contact you outside of the regularly scheduled classroom time. Include your e-mail address, office number and location, office phone number, personal web page, etc.
- Take attendance: Call the roll or have your students sign in. You are organizing the class through roll call.
- Hand out the course syllabus: The course syllabus is your printed guideline to the students about what is going to occur in your course. You need to take time to go over each section of the syllabus. As each section is covered, stop for questions
- Show the required text & materials: Bring a copy of the course text(s) to class and hold it up for the students to see.. List on the chalkboard or whiteboard the details of how and where they can get the text (new or used)
Additional Guidelines:
- Give a short overview of course content: use some class time to give a brief overview of the subject matter. a) Topics that will be covered. b) A few key concepts within the field that will be developed. c) Samples of projects that will be completed. d) Field trips that will be taken or guest speakers that will be coming. e) Any other key points of course content that you want to highlight
- Discuss the course goals and objectives: tell your students what you wish to accomplish and why. Highlight the course goals in such a way that the students will be able to see the expected outcomes of the course. Go over the objectives and give brief examples of projects and/or activities that will accomplish them
- Define your expectations for student participation: by defining your expectations you help in the process. They want to know how they are going to fit in. Expectations differ from the class requirements in that they are more personal to the students. Let students know what you will do for them and in return what they must do for success in the class.
- Discuss the basis for evaluation in the course: be as detailed as you can without severely limiting your flexibility during the term. Discuss the tests, papers, projects, and other assignments. If you are giving your students options, make sure you spell out these options as clearly as possible. Let them know the percentage of the grade associated with each of the required activities
Overview & Requirements
- Describe how you propose to spend class time: Let your students know what to expect from their class sessions. How will your class sessions be structured? Mostly lecture? Discussion? Group or individual projects and reports? Guest speakers? How much of the course will be devoted to lab work? Will you be using multimedia in your presentations? Will time be set aside for questions and answers?
- Give your students ideas about how to study and prepare for the course: You need to give your students some ideas about how they might approach preparing for your class. Will they need to take notes, will you give them study guides, and will handouts be given to go along with the text?
- Review important policies and procedures: Make sure to cover any issues related to school or departmental policies that will affect the students the very first day. These may include information about parking, smoking, uniforms, support services, payments, Let the students know clearly how you feel about cheating and impermissible collaboration. This is the time to be forcible about the standards you will be enforcing. There can be no misunderstanding on this issue
- List any safety precautions and emergency procedures: A separate section on general safety precautions should be included as a part of your course syllabus. In addition, you should go over the safe practices for moving around the laboratory and general equipment use. Let students know what to do in case of fire, tornado, earthquake, evacuation, or other emergency. You should secure this information from the central office of your school to ensure that you know exactly the procedures that the school wants you to follow
Motivating students: Motivation for learning depends on three interrelated factors:
- Appreciation of the value of the learning experience.
- Expectation of success. (“Will I be able to learn the required skills? or “Will I be able to make the grade I want in this course?”)
- Belief that performance is related to rewards. (“Will I get a return for all of the work I put into this course?”)
Show students they can succeed and that given a reasonable amount of work rewards will be meaningfully related to performance. Since the ultimate goal of your students is a rewarding career, make sure to relate your course content to the overall objectives of the educational program.
Other strategies that can help you to get a successful first class meeting are:
· Give your students optional Activities
· Consider giving a brief pretest
· Provide more information about yourself and your background
· Provide activities to enable the students to get to know each other
· Begin to learn students’ names
· Ask students to do group exercises
· Give students an opportunity to meet each other
Ending the class: you want your students to have at the end of their first class meeting.
- A sense of where they’re going and how they’ll get there.
- A feeling that the other members of the class are not strangers.
- An awareness that you care about their learning.
- An expectation that the course will be both valuable and enjoyable
When meeting the class for the first time I learned not to behave as I know so much but focus on more of how I am going to make them successful.
Giving a brief introduction about yourself and your experience helps give you credibility with the students.
Give students cards to fill out to get to know them more.
Doris Owens
It is important to know how to pronounce the students name and they feel important when call them by name when class participation is being done and you encourage them in their participation.
I usually introduce myself and provide information about myself, then I have the students introduce themselves. Afterwards I practice pronouncing their names.
Taking attendance and writing Mods on the board are effective.
Be open and honest with the students. Ensure that everything is clearly explained and that the students completely understand the expectations.
introductions from both parties, instructor and student, s it sets the stage for the class
I like the idea of learning something about your students to help create a good teaching environment.
In this lesson I learned the importance of setting expectations, introducing myself, and getting to know the students. I also understand the importance of ensuring the students come away from the first day of class with knowing how to proceed the rest of the course.
Meeting the class for the first time I will be intentional about learning their names, making a safe learning environment, and allowing the students to feel comfortable with each other. I have used an "ice-breaker" in which I pair students up randomly and ask them to introduce their "new best friend". Lots of fun doing this and gets the class moving together.
I will definitely use the 3x5 card game getting to know you.
My students are cohorts and they already know each other. So I will want to learn something about them. Maybe use the "three true things about you and one lie about you"
I found some of the approaches and techniques for getting to know the class (students) and be able to discuss the requirements of the course in different manners helpful. I'll be able to incorporate the different methods into future courses.
Get to know your students
