Tag: day one

Getting to Class; Turn Day One Jitters into Day Won Class

It’s August. Back to school sales are raging. Letters are arriving that tell students who their teachers will be this fall. Nervous energy is buzzing through bodies… Not just students’. Teachers worry about the first day of school, also.

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August First, 2018 — This is what I saw when I pulled up to my building.

Here are a couple classy ways that I deal with the start of school jitters:

  1. I have a goal… ONE goal for the first day. I’ll accomplish more than the one thing, but I measure my success based on this one thing. It isn’t the same every year. Sometimes it is learning everyone’s name. Other years, all I wanted was to get everyone back home safely. Nowadays, my goal usually centers on classroom management. I like  the momentum to begin in my favor, so I establish myself as captain. The class is my crew. “Any questions? That was rhetorical. Put your hand IMG_5681.PNGdown.” I don’t just withhold my smile until Thanksgiving; I’m not even pleasant for several weeks into the year! Of course, I am kidding. The pleasantries are paired with the smile, and it is more like Christmas when they appear. It’s my Christmas present to the crew class. Oh kay, seriously… I suggest not making this an impossible goal, as in “I want everyone to like me,” “Everyone should have fun,” “The class should love school…” They sound good, but are disastrously defeating. Simple is always best. “Everyone will leave the first day knowing the rules of the classroom; If nothing else, they will understand my expectations, period” 
  2. Meet that first goal and your golden! There isn’t a number two. I lied when I said, “Here’s a couple things…” The whole point of the one goal is for there to only be one thing that you are concentrating on. Okay, but if you are interested, there is one other thing that I do before the school year begins that has seemed to help: I make up some sort of slogan for the year. This is something that I have never shared with anyone, so it is rather ironic that I am blogging it to the world! It began this practice when I was long-term subbing. Before the year began, I came up with a little mantra that I used to keep me pumped up. It didn’t make any pedagogical sense, but it seemed to get my blood moving. I would tell myself, “We (yes, I use the royal pronoun when referring to myself; I am not multi-personality-possessing; at least, one of my personalities does not think so;) are going to kill it this year.” (I almost typed an exclamation mark at the end of my personal rallying cry, but it was really just a small whisper that I told myself.) Last year it was something like, “Everything before now has just been practice. This year I’m going to make it happen.” Notice how the motto is generic. In this way, it is difficult to fail. If I just do something different or better, I am successful. I don’t attempt to define “It”*.

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    My classroom on Aug. 1, 2018 gives me the jitters:) The castle has been “stormed”!

Remember this one last tidbit of advice: The person that you are warring against, when it comes to overcoming nervous energy is YOURSELF. Everyone experiences his/her own battles, and therefore each will need his/her own battle strategy. Win Day One, and you are on your way to a year won in more ways than… You get the idea.

back to school conceptual creativity cube
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

*This is the same “It” that defeated the Knights Who Say Ni from Monty Python’s “Search for the Holy Grail.” Or, is it the “It” described by Dean Moriarty, when he is listening to jazz in a night club in San Fransisco in “On The Road” by Jack Kerouac? I think it lies somewhere between the two.

A Class of Heros

Everyone is the “hero” of his own story. No matter what happens, the teller comes out on top. The classy teacher will know this, appreciate the mindset, empathize with each student’s self-centered, egocentric view of the world, and use it to foster classy heroes, rather than megalomaniacal monsters.

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Technology Heroes: I am in “awe” of how my students technology. They are my heroes.

Have you ever heard of someone putting a person in his/her “place”? This person uses the mask of teaching a student a lesson to vent emotions. Could this be any less classy a concept? A student is disrespectful. The teacher feels like the student would act more honorably if he/she understood his/her “place” in the construct of school hierarchy. So, the teacher, an educated grown up, belittles the youth through verbiage, discipline, or even just a look/body language (ignoring the student). The only thing that this unclassy adult is doing is showing the naturally narcissistic youth how to be truly disrespectful.

The classy teacher redirects. Instead of belittling an already little kid, build him up by showing him what a hero would do. It isn’t because of the “rules” that we don’t yell out in class. That isn’t a classy thing to do. Heros don’t interrupt. “This is what you want to do next time…”

What is a hero? The hero is a person others idolize; For kids, that is themselves. A hero is someone people look up to because of accomplishments (Cipriano, 2014). A mediocre basketball player is not as heroic as the one who leads the team to victory. Ancient civilizations made up stories and created their heros, the gods. The United States of America lavishes heroism on George Washington.

A hero is someone people connect with in order to feel better about themselves. George Washington, the father of our country, lead a rebel, underdog army to victory over the greatest military in the world! Identifying with this hero fosters pride in country and therefore person for being a citizen of that country.

Treat each student like he or she is a hero… They are… in their own minds. Help them achieve their personal greatness by assuming their hero status.

Another thing that forms people into heroes is overcoming adversity (Cipriano, 2014). The survivor of calamity is a hero to others. “I could never have done that; I would never be able to put up with that; If that had been me I wouldn’t have conducted myself nearly as classy…” An easy way to help students become the heroes they already believe themselves to be is by providing “opportunities of challenge”. When I tell my students the expectations for lining up, I make it nearly impossible for kids to do. Then I pretend to be “in awe” of the students who can actually do it. These kids are then seen as heroes from a lineage of class beyond human capability. Without making my expectations seem (they must be somewhat obtainable) unfeasible, there would be no hero. The hero can do the impossible.  

A misconception: Some teachers have the philosophy that their students all have A’s until they start doing things wrong or losing points. That is not what I am talking about. The line isn’t perfect until it isn’t.

Don’t treat students as if some day they will eventually do something great. Help them grow into their greatness by believing in them. They already believe in themselves. Build their belief into something constructive; something worth adding to. Good luck creating a class of heroes.

Cipriano, R. (2014, July 8). What Is a Hero. Retrieved June 18, 2018, from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/rob-cipriano/what-is-a-hero_b_5560441.html