The first day of school will most probably go by very quickly. You will be performing some standard housekeeping tasks and dealing with students with scheduling problems entering and leaving your class at different times. Even though you will not get a lot done in terms of curriculum on that first day, you have the opportunity to set the stage for the rest of the year.

Begin Immediately

Begin your course on the first day. Try to finish your housekeeping duties quickly, leaving five or ten minutes to start your course. Have a mini-lesson planned or give a pretest. Hold a class discussion about expectations concerning your course. Discuss a current event that has a bearing on what your students will be learning. In other words, send kids the message that even though it might just be the first day, you mean business.

If you talk to students, you will find that they have teachers who make them work and teachers who allow them to goof off. These labels are placed on teachers from the first day. Worse still, they follow you from year to year. It is very hard — though not impossible — to change your reputation. It is an uphill battle to suddenly become a teacher who requires hard work when you have been lax in the past.

Learning Students' Names

Learning names can sometimes be a difficult prospect for new teachers. However, if you know your students' names, you have a better chance of connecting with them and also controlling their behavior. A great technique is to learn a few names right away and use them during your first class. This lets students see that you are quick and also that you care enough to learn who they are.

Each day, try to learn a few more names. It helps to take attendance out loud for at least a week and require students to raise their hands when called. Through this repetition, you will learn their names.

Realize, however, that you will have times when you forget a student's name. This can occur if a student is very quiet or if a few individuals with similar names sit together in your room. One strategy is to walk around the room passing out papers in the first two weeks of school. Typically, you will want students to retrieve their papers on their own. However, if you are having trouble remembering who a few students are, you can walk around and call out each name as listed on the paper. That way, you can see who reacts.