Being in college, the first day of classes is always syllabus day. Mostly they are all the same, the professor reading the goals of the class, the schedule and grading. And it is usually pretty boring. Maybe it’s because I haven’t been in middle or elementary school in a very long time, but I can’t really remember how the first day of classes would go. I know it wasn’t like syllabus day. So what do teachers do to talk about the goals of the class and such? And why is it so different, and much more boring, now?
It is very comforting to know that everything is planned out, like it should be. However, when you take the plan and control and give it to a student, you don’t really know what you will end up with and that could be extremely scary. If a teacher has this control, they know everything that is going on in the classroom and nothing goes unnoticed. This can be particularly suffocating to students, who wouldn’t feel free to discuss their own thoughts, feelings and suggestions. It makes the classroom very one-sided. It is the teacher’s classroom, not a classroom for everyone.
If a teacher decides to let that control go a bit, they open up the possibility of creative thought and learning. Students feel they can try new things and even if they fail, it will be ok. The student’s can feel like they are more important when they have a bit of the control and that they matter. This increases motivation and furthers learning. While a teacher can’t account for every situation, it is the same in everyday life. You can’t control certain situations and some events just come out of the blue, so why should a teacher feel like they need to have an iron-clad grip over the classroom. You don’t need to totally give up control, in fact, that’s probably a really bad idea. But giving some to the students along with proper guidance can lead to a much more successful classroom and learning environment.
I remember some of my first days of classes, but barely! What I do remember is playing some games to get to know each other. We did that a lot in elementary school. I think it's important to go over some rules on the first day, just because the earlier you can enforce them the better, but I also think it's important to make sure the kids leave with a good impression of the class - if they leave the first day discouraged, that's how they're going to feel for a while. It definitely wasn't the syllabus day we have now (which I agree, I don't know why we do that, it's kind of pointless), but I agree with the book about setting some standards for the classroom right away.
ReplyDeleteI feel like it's so different now in college somewhat because a lot of the teachers in college are graduate students who are very knowledge about their subject area, however are not trained to be teachers. My teacher in my Communication in the Classroom class said that the training a graduate student has to become an associate instructor depends upon department, but a lot of apartments only have a few sessions about how to get along with students, and is not about how to actually teach. Also I think a lot of people think that college students do not need to be entertained all the time, and we can handle being bored in class, but as we all know that's not the case. College is more straight-forward than high school, and I think that is part of the reason we have the "syllabus-day" so that everyone is on the same page in the class and everyone knows what they will be doing for the semester.
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