Your First Day in the
classroom
At Tulane… or elsewhere!
Why focus on the
first day?
• Crucial for establishing a productive working
relationship with students
• “Patterning:”
• Everything you will expect of your students – writing,
analyzing, speaking, group work, etc. – you should have
them do the first day
Foster Community
• Arrive early and greet students as they enter.
• Have your name and class name on the board
• Learn their names as quickly as you can
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Review the class roster before class
Photos?
Self-completed index cards
Make them introduce themselves the first day
Encourage students
to be interested
• Don’t begin by reading the syllabus
• Spend some time talking about your interest in and
engagement with the subject matter
• Think about questions you can ask about the material
to make students engage with the subject matter even if
they have not read the material.
• Try to create a “need to know”
Get students to take
you seriously
• Introduce yourself fully
• Make your expectations clear on the first day:
• “Warm” expectations: collaboration, sharing,
supportiveness, etc.
• “Cool” expectations: due dates, grammar, honor code,
etc.
Before class: How to
prepare?
• Define what skills and knowledge your students should
have by the end of the term
• Consider who your students are and what
environment, resources and activities will assist them
in gaining these skills.
• Plan clear learning objectives (which are required in all
syllabi)
• Syllabi are contracts and are most effective when
comprehensive and explicit
Syllabi
• Include grading policies, honor code information,
disability resources, a schedule of
tests/reading/assignments
• Calendar the entire semester and pay attention to test
and assignment dates and holidays (remember your
own work schedule!)
• Prepare your reading materials as early as possible and
post on either Eres or MyTulane or both
Your Teaching Space
• Visit your classroom before the first class
• Learn how to use the technology in the room
• Think about how to use the space to encourage
interactive, engaged learning:
• lecture seating arrangements often “dead end” discussion
Engaging
presentations?
• Useful repetition, summaries, and breaking the lecture into smaller
parts
• What makes you different from the book? Use examples and stories the more visual and interactive the more impact the lecture will have.
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Use visual images to describe your point -- a striking demonstration
concerning physics or a visual analogy to describe a poem.
Use many examples; they make lectures come alive. A vivid example has
far more impact than accumulated data.
Figure out ways to make lectures interactive.
Begin with a simple story related to the topic of the day.
Have outlines of your lecture available for your students on MyTulane.
Think about incorporating Web 2.0 tools into your class: blogs, wikis,
even twitter!!!
Death by
Powerpoint!!!
• Is what I have just subjected you to with the last slide
• http://www.slideshare.net/thecroaker/death-bypowerpoint
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Significance
Structure
Simplicity
Rehearsal
Engaging
presentations?
• Repeat, summarize, break-down
• What makes you different from the book?
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Visual images.
Many examples (verbally)
Make lectures interactive.
Begin with a simple story related to the topic
Post outlines of lectures on MyTulane.
Incorporate Web 2.0 tools
Teaching at Tulane
• Who are our students?
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Very, VERY smart
Risk takers
Geographically distant from other support networks
Eager to engage
Questions?
Associate Provost Ana M. López
Office of Academic Affairs
200 Gibson Hall
Tulane University
New Orleans, LA 70118
(504) 865-5261
lopez@tulane.edu