If there’s one thing I want for your first day of school, it’s for the pressure to be off you. You’ve got enough to worry about without needing to pull off a 45 minute lecture that magically holds students’ attention before they even know you five times in a row.
That’s why for this lesson, requested for our summer “Plan my Lesson” series, our goal will be to hit all the day-one must-dos while also building community and keeping things engaging and low-stress. This is your chance to start connecting with your students and helping them feel comfortable in your classroom, while at the same time showing them what your class is going to be like.
Project your Agenda & Take Attendance
As usual, I suggest you have your agenda for the day up on the board, and that you kick off class with an attendance question. This is your chance to explain how attendance questions work, so model for students how to quickly answer the question when they hear their name called by calling on yourself and answering the question with one word. Of course, as always with attendance questions, if you have more time, you can let them turn to a neighbor to chat about the question for a minute before running through your names.
You might want to have a paper list of names handy while you do attendance today, so you can write down the correct pronunciation of tricky names and get them right for the rest of the year. I’ve bumped into so many names that were new to me while calling attendance, and it’s really important to learn how to say them correctly even if they are difficult. Spelling them out phonetically for yourself on your master class list is an easy tool to help.
Pass out Your Syllabus and give it 30 Seconds
A class syllabus SEEMS like it might be important to go over line by line but in fact, NO, the best thing – in my opinion – is to pass it out and give students a very brief window to look it over and ask questions. And speaking of not spending too long on your syllabus, I’m happy to share the templates I’ve created to speed up your syllabus CREATION as well.
If you’d like a copy of the three editable syllabus templates you see here over on Google Slides, just sign up for my popular Friday teaching emails below, and they’ll be the first thing I send your way! Unsubscribe any old time.
Name Activity Option One: Name Tent One-Pagers
Next, I suggest one of two activities to help you start getting to know your students, and, importantly for them to start getting to know each other.
First, there’s the name tent option. A name tent gives you such an easy way to get names right in that busy first week. I used to simply print every students’ name on cardstock, but then I realized the name tent could also be a getting-to-know you vehicle. Simply provide bright markers and invite students to put different things about themselves on their name tent along with their names. Maybe in the bottom right corner they put their favorite books, the bottom left their favorite musical artists, etc. Soon the Swifties have found each other (and you might be singing along with them to “Tortured Poets Department”), the kids who loved Percy Jackson in middle school are making eye contact, etc. Best of all, as you use the name tents over the next few days (or as long as you want), you get more and more chances to connect your students’ faces, names, and interests.
If you’re like me, and you want to get names memorized right away (and if your school’s policies allow it), you can snap a quick photo of each student holding their name tent so you can flip through the photos later and work on their names. You can still use the name tents for another few days so you feel less stress about whether you’re remembering right, and so students get to know each other’s names (just as important!), but you’ll have all the more confidence when you spot them in the hall or coming into class, etc. if you’ve had a chance to study a little outside of class.
Last thing on these – SAVE them after the first week. I like them throughout the rest of the year for three uses:
- Pop them out on the desks before students arrive and pass back that giant pile of work on your desk before kids arrive, so you don’t have to waste class time. This works especially well when you have students coming for first period, after lunch, or after a free, so you can pop on a podcast and take your time walking around and passing all the work back with no ticking clock.
- Use them anytime for a quick seating chart when classroom dynamics need a change-up. Place them on your desks or tables before students arrive and then ask them to find their name tent and sit there.
- Give them to your subs! You will make their lives so much easier when they can easily call students by name and maybe even build a quick connection around a favorite movie, sport, etc.
Name Activity Option Two: Hexagonal Identity One-Pagers
It’s honestly so hard for me to choose between the name tent one-pager and the hex identity one-pager, so I’m going to leave it up to you!
For this twist, you learn names, build community, AND introduce the concept of hexagonal thinking as well as one-pagers. That’s a lot of wins.
Give each student a hexagon divided into sections, and just as with the name tent, invite them to fill in the sections with first their name, and then various aspects of their identity. Maybe a section gets a favorite quote, a section gets places they dream of going, a section gets their top activities/sports, etc.
Next, invite them to find someone else they can connect a section of their hexagon to by laying them side by side. That could mean they share a place they dream of going, a favorite song, a favorite sport, etc.
Now have that pair find another pair to connect to, laying their hexagons out in a small web to show the connections.
And here’s where it gets a little wild. Maybe they connect to one other group next if you have a big class, or maybe you go to the wall now with tape rolls and start trying to build a web that includes connections between the entire class. In the process, students will have a chance to see all the many things they have in common as you build the foundation of your community for the year.
If you’re in our Creative High School English Facebook group, you can see several classroom examples here, here, and here.
Wrap with an Introduction of your Tech Policies
At this point, you’ve likely used up most of your first day. So it’s your call whether you fit this last element into day one, save it for later in your first week, or maybe introduce it briefly now and follow up the next day. But I do think it’s important to give a little time to explaining/discussing your cell phone and/or AI policies, and the rationale behind them. This could take many forms, likely involving some informational texts about tech and its affects on the brain, then some small group discussion and/or writing about their reactions.
Say Goodbye at the Door
If you’ve still got the emotional bandwidth, consider standing at the door as students go out so you can say goodbye with a smile. Maybe ask, as an exit “ticket”, for one unexpected thing they learned about a classmate during the first class.
Teaching Takeaways
My big takeaway today for you is to make things easier for yourself when you’re under stress. This lesson plan takes the spotlight off you so you can hopefully get some good sleep sans nightmares before the first night of school. For me, spending more time creating an activity with all information students need already on it, a set of stations that is self-guided, a webquest with embedded links, etc. means that I walk into the classroom feeling confident and ready to focus on my students and whatever the day brings. It’s easier to keep to a schedule, easier to troubleshoot issues that come up, easier to help students who have a problem, and easier to build relationships.
