FirstDay

=First Day: You only get one first impression=

Research
Below are resources to read or to watch. Some are digital, some are not. Any with an asterisk are required for you to use. Otherwise, select 3 or more to read/view/absorb. Additionally, using appropriate college-level research skills, you must find a resource not on this list that gives you additional insights to this topic. A professional interview with an expert-in-the-field is an appropriate resource. (3 of mine and 1 of yours is the required minimum...feel free to use more resources...see me if you want to substitute some of yours for mine)
 * [|Edutopia is always a great resource. Here are examples from elementary but the categories are universal]
 * On the left, are a list of additional articles on the topic. Any of these articles are good resources, too.
 * Cole and Devin, Practicum Spring 2013, put together [[file:sp13class/Hello and Hold On eBook.pdf|a great chapter about how to handle the first day]] and why it's even important to think about it. The chapter includes interviews with teachers at Mt. Blue Middle and High Schools
 * [|If you want students to participate in discussions throughout your course, you have to start on the first day]

Reflect
Create a reflection (write/record/document) in your personal digital classroom management kit that captures your reflections on your research. It should be apparent from your documentation that you actually took in information from the 4 sources, i.e. don't just list the book you read or the video you watched, but include some actual information from the resource. In your reflection you can agree and/or disagree with the author/creator(s) of each resource.

Resolve -- Proactive
Now that you have this information on this classroom management topic, what are you going to do with it? Imagine that you are a first year teacher in a school with 80 minute blocks. Pick a class that you want to teach (Algebra II, American History, British Literature, Physics, Family and Consumer Science,...). Will you have a team building activity or get-to-know-you activity? Will you go over the syllabus? Will you hand out textbooks? Will you dig right into the content? What will the homework be (if any) and how much time will you spend explaining it? Will you give a survey? Will there be safety rules or other rules in your classroom and will you go over those the first day?

Make an outline of what you want to do on that first day in those 80 minutes.

Resolve -- Reactive
Now that you have this information on this classroom management topic, what are you going to do with it? Even though you have a great proactive approach to dealing with this topic, there will come the day when the unexpected situation will arise in this area. Using the given scenario or creating one of your own, describe one or more reactive approaches you might take. Be sure to document how/why you know this is an effective reactive technique (i.e., cite one or more of your research sources).

Scenario

 * Your district sends a notice that you should spend the first day of class confirming emergency contact information on all of your students, checking the list of which ones have submitted vaccination records and permission slips, and handing out textbooks and filling out the inventory sheets.
 * You've got a lot to cover this semester. How can you go over first day info in a way that will also introduce some content?
 * What if someone has to go to the bathroom before you get a chance to go over hall pass procedures (or however you're going to handle students leaving to go to the bathroom).