3 Things You Must Do On The First Day Of School

The tendency is to rush.

To try and cover every policy and procedure.

To cram it all in on the first day of school for fear that if you don’t, then your students will develop bad habits.

They’ll get lax and sloppy and misbehavior will ensue.

But the truth is, you only really need to focus on three things.

Now, I don’t mean to suggest that you shouldn’t cover anything else. Time permitting, you may in fact teach quite a bit more.

But three particular topics, or areas of classroom management influence, are far and away the most important.

Because they establish the culture of your classroom. They send an indelible message about who you are and what is expected.

They set the bar, the tone, and the spirit and thus must be taught exceptionally well.

So what are they?

1. One great overview.

After a brief but friendly introduction, it’s best to jump right in with an inspired overview of your classroom management plan. 20-30 minutes is plenty of time to run through it in a surprising amount of detail.

You will, of course, return to the topic on subsequent days and weeks to model and teach specifics in greater detail, but it’s important to lay it all out on the first day.

In this way, you can begin enforcing it.

It’s best to start by explaining why you have a classroom management plan to begin with and how it protects their right to learn and enjoy school. Next, show the plan displayed on your wall and then simply read it aloud.

After that, give one brief description of each rule and consequence. It’s okay to model in place (mime) while you’re describing, but hold off on full and detailed modeling for another day.

Finally, you’re going to create a visualization of the steps a misbehaving student would take from initial warning to parent contact. Walk them through the experience of a student that breaks a rule early in the day (or period) and then proceeds to break more as the day continues.

Show your students how you will respond, what you will say, and what it means as well as the response expected of them. Allow for questions and then wrap up with a promise to follow your plan as it’s written.

Just keep it simple.

Read your plan, provide one explanation, and then create a “movie in their mind” by telling the story of a misbehaving student. This is a powerful way to establish behavior expectations and firm boundaries very quickly.

2. One great routine.

For anything and everything you do repeatedly as a class, there should be a routine. Routines make everything easier and keep students focused and purpose-driven throughout each day.

They also lessen the opportunity to misbehave.

Done right, they make the transitional business between lessons, which can be a massive time-waste, an automated process—one where you do nothing more than observe. No narrating, reminding, threatening, or even opening your mouth.

That first routine you teach, however, is especially important because it provides a model for how all other routines should be performed. In other words, excellence transfers and makes the rest of them easier and faster to teach.

The key is to model what you want in a very specific, highly detailed way.

This doesn’t mean militaristic or overly serious. You can make your routines as relaxed and casual as you wish as long as your students know exactly what your expectations are.

I recommend your first routine being the first five or ten minutes of the period or school day.

It should include, but is not limited to, entering the classroom, putting their backpacks away, getting materials ready, and beginning their first assignment or giving you their quiet attention.

Somewhat counterintuitively, the more steps you ask of your students, within reason, the better and smoother the routine.

For elementary teachers, you’ll want to model as if you’re an actual student working your way through the process. You’ll then ask individual students to model. Then small groups of students. Then half the class. Then finally ask the entire class to practice the routine together.

Middle school teachers may do a more abbreviated version of the above—teacher modeling and then half or all-class practice, for example—and high school teachers may want to simply model in place what is expected.

This doesn’t mean less detail or thoroughness or a lowering of expectation. It’s just that the visualization skills of middle and high school students allow you to be less demonstrative.

In any case, once your students prove they know how to do the routine by performing it as expected, it’s just a matter of holding them to that standard every day for the rest of the year.

3. One great lesson.

It’s common to want to ease into academics, to hold off a day or so before asking too much of your students. But this is an epic mistake.

You see, on the first day of school your students are most open and ready to learn. They’re eager to turn over a new leaf and you must take advantage of it. You must send the message that yours is no ordinary classroom.

You must set the bar of listening, participating, and work habits on the top rung while your students are least resistant to change.

So choose one objective, one thing you want your students to be able to do, and teach the heck out of it. Make it challenging and worth learning, but most of all, give it your very best.

Model, emote, storytell, move, jump, shimmy, dance, preen, pretend, playact, dramatize, and embrace the passion you have to perform what is the essence of teaching.

What you were born to do.

Set your students up for success by making your objective clear and doable and then have them prove to you they understand before sending them off to work independently (and thus prove it to themselves).

The idea is to have them experience legitimate success from the start while stirring the intrinsic joy of learning and being part of your class.

This very effectively places within them an initial desire and motivation to listen, learn, and be an active part of your classroom. It awakens them, draws them in, and causes them to look forward to whatever comes next.

Make It So

The three topics above are the most influential things you can do on the first day of school.

They’re not about rolling the dice by trying what feels right or by what the teacher next door is doing, and they’re not about merely hoping for a good year.

They’re about taking the bull by the horns and making it so.

They’re about providing the structure and motivation students need to make galloping improvement in behavior, attentiveness, and work habits right off the bat.

They’re about instilling a love for learning.

So double-down on what matters most. Teach boldly and courageously. Leave your students at the end of the first day excited, happily shaken, and wholly different than when they walked through your door.

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