Teaching Differently: Strategies to teaching on the first day of the class

The first day of class is very important both for the teachers and students. The first impression of the teacher is strong since the students quickly make an opinion about them. This could also impact the interest of the student for the rest of the course. Moreover, the first day of the class offers an opportunity in building a learning-centric classroom by knowing each other. It becomes important to have an organized and clear plan. With the right strategy, and a clear plan a teacher can steer the first day of the class into a productive one for the rest of the course. The objective is to take away the hesitation in students and make them feel confident to speak by building a common classroom culture

1. Introducing yourself can be a good way of starting the conversation.

2. Building common classroom culture and motivating students to practice and follow the same. This includes informing them of the rules, which are as follows:

• No overlapping while one person is speaking.

• Judging or/and making fun of someone’s viewpoint, opinion, language skills or experience is NOT TOLERABLE.

• Short/comprehensive sentences are welcome.

• Raising hands for pointing out a mistake, or putting queries.

• Everyone’s right to express themselves must be respected.

• Reaching the classroom in time.

3. Begin by sharing your experience that is relevant to the subject, their ethnicity, culture and is interdisciplinary. The objective is to build a conversation between teachers and students.

Engage students in the conversation by making them think through claim-counterclaim and essential questions teaching strategy. 

4. Describe the syllabus by explaining the structure of the syllabus, content and setting the pace for the rest of the semester.