What are your classroom expectations on the first day of school? What are your assumptions about people, places, things, ideas, and experiences? Our expectations and assumptions can significantly affect how well things go on the first day and throughout the school year. Your attitude counts!
If you enter the classroom with the mindset of someone who “assumes the worst,” you may expect the students to be noisy and difficult to control – so they probably will be exactly that. On the other hand, if you are expecting quiet, well-behaved students who raise their hands to ask questions and remain quiet whenever you want to speak, you may be bitterly disillusioned. No classroom is entirely filled with “good” or “bad” behaved students.
When your students walk into the classroom, how will you greet them? What will be their first impression of you? Will they think you are friendly or formidable? The first impression can shape the whole school year. Striking a balance between creating a positive relationship with students while retaining authority and control can be key to a teacher’s success.
The first impression on the very first day is CRITICAL.
Consider how adults socialize when they make new acquaintances. Don’t we take time to ask each other our names, where we live, and where we come from? Don’t we want to share information about our jobs, hobbies, interests, and families? Maybe we have mutual acquaintances or have been to the same places. We may even have met before. Those initial conversations establish our connections, and we take in a lot of information about each other.
Non-verbal impressions communicate even more strongly than words. Some social scientists estimate that perhaps 93% of our communications are non-verbal. We observe each other and gather thousands of subconscious impressions. Eye contact, body language, tone of voice, facial expressions, and quality of energy in gestures are just some ways we communicate who we are and what we gather as our impressions of other people.
The small but crucial choices you make about your appearance will communicate most about you in the early days.
All the best,
Steve
