First Day of School:
What an exciting time! Do you remember any of your first classes? That's right, I don't really either..they were often boring and involved reading the syllabus and rushing through a quick lesson maybe. What an opportunity wasted!
The first day of class can give so much meaning to an entire year, or even change the outlook of a student towards school. And we waste it taking up the classroom rules, as if they are so important that if they were 'broken'on the first day, everything would fall apart. Instead of engagement, the focus is often on structure.
This day could be used to channel that excitement into curiosity; to change previous beliefs of what a classroom is; to build something from the ground-up with student support. Why not start with an experiment, and lead into discussion. Is the syllabus really that important that it cannot wait another day. Students will just as quickly forget it, but they won't forget if they were engaged...
(ps. engaged is not used in the eloping sense. though exciting, I would not recommend this on the first day of class)
I will second that recommendation!
ReplyDeleteWhile engagement is optimal, you bring up an interesting point. As I was reading the idea of starting with an experiment, my initial thought was lab SOP's and your responsibilities.
This entry then lead me to an interesting thought related to science, isn't structure related to function? So when analyzing, does it matter which comes first?