Opening Day

Hello everyone,

Here's a word about opening day at school:

It's always chaotic. It's frustrating because you want to be the best teacher possible, and you're inhibited by things beyond your control. The reality is that there's nothing for it but to endure. It will pass, and you will be able to teach to your fullest ability soon enough. At Garfield, opening day difficulties can last as long as two weeks because we're such a huge school. Keep that in mind as you plan. Use the first two weeks to establish classroom procedures, "access prior knowledge," assess your students' abilities, review, and anything else that prepares them for the real meat of your curriculum. Be careful about giving too much meat the first two weeks, however, because changes will happen.

You will want to keep copies of your syllabus for students who check in late. Make it so that a student entering your class after your opening day lecture will be able to jump into the thick of things with very little instruction from you (either have written procedures that are easy to follow, or assign another student to explain things).

Jeff Combe