First Day Of School - Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2009

So it finally arrived.

As should be expected, the first day of school is usually filled with bureaucratic items (paperwork to be filled out by kids and their parents), going over classroom behaviors and codes of conduct, etc. However, today was also a very useful, even essential day, for a student teacher to observe and learn, since much of the tone and tenor of the coming school year is set during these first few days, even before any actual “learning” commences. It is also a good time to observe how a teacher maintains control in the classroom, because many kids can be a bit rambunctious and unruly on the first day of school, so it is useful to see how a teacher deals with disruption.

There were only a couple of relatively minor incidents in my classroom, but it is important to deal with disruption quickly and efficiently, and to set expectations for the coming year. It was also important to observe the teacher’s “personality” and the dominant facets of his approach to teaching, which in my teacher (hereinafter Mr. M) is a big reliance on humor and gentle sarcasm (the students in our class are very bright and can handle it). He is not afraid to make fun of kids if they ask obvious or repetitive questions, again, in a gentle but teasing manner, since he obviously has high expectations for them. Humor also seems to work in bringing out the kids’ personalities, particularly ones who are a bit on the shy side. The key is to temper the humor with care and compassion, and not to become overly reliant on it as a tool, but it seems most useful when really trying to emphasize an important piece of information.

For example, the “theme” attributes for our class’ coming school year are “Professional, Powerful, Personal.” The teacher asked the class to give examples of each, while explaining why each trait is important in forming a student’s personality and classroom demeanor. But he combined the students’ examples with some of his (mostly humorous) own, and this approach seemed to solidify these concepts in the students’ minds. When discussing "personal," he emphasized how he expected all essays, even if they are about the same event or subject, to be different and reflect the student's individuality and personality. His illustration, about picking one's nose and flinging boogers at somebody, was the high (or low) point of hilarity, but it seemed to get the message across effectively.

All in all, a very good first day.