The First Day Of School

Picture from: radair.com

As an educator the first day of school is super important for dictating how the rest of the year is going to be! The first day sets the tone for the rest of the year; making your students want to come back for the next class is important and can be decided with how you approach the first day! You can either be known as the teacher who students do not respect and walk all over, or the teacher who is strict, but fun at the same time! You can always start out strict and become more relaxed as the year goes on, but it is hard to start the year being relaxed and all of a sudden decide that you want to be strict with your students; by that time, they have already decided that they don't respect you. With so much riding on the first day of school, I am really glad that this lab was incorporated into the class; this is the place to make mistakes!

I feel that I did a good job with keeping the students attention throughout the lesson and I think they enjoyed the activity that I did with the Play Doh that had them introduce each other through a sculpture. I feel that my expectations, procedures, and consequences are also solid because they are short and to the point. Having expectations that are short make it easier for students to remember what you expect of them when they enter your class. I greeted the students at the door, giving them instructions on what to do whenever they find their seats. I did not give assigned seats because if this were a real class, I would want to see who is friends with who. Knowing who are friends is important for when students are put in groups. Sometimes having friends work together is good, but it is also important for students to engage with others.

Although I feel that I did some things well, I need to work on not being so monotone and showing more excitement with what I am teaching. More preparation before the lesson would allow me to feel more confident in what I am teaching and which would reflect on the way I speak. Although I gave background information about myself to the students, I should have made a play Doh sculpture for them to look at and give them ideas. I need to utilize the whole room, instead of hovering while the students work, make comments on what they are doing and become more engaged!

I look forward to my next lab, I have a lot of things that I need to improve on and I plan to work harder on the upcoming lab so I keep moving forward to reach my goals! I'm glad I have such an inspiring cohort to keep pushing me into the best Ag. educator that I can be!

Until next time,
Mike