The First Days of School Book Study part 1

Every summer I like to read How to be an Effective Teacher the First Days of School by Harry K. Wong and Rosemary T. Wong.  It's a tradition.  It also helps me to start the year organized, inspired, and confident.  Here are my notes from each unit, plus additional information from internet searches, Pinterest, etc. that I found useful and actually do/use in my classroom from year to year.

I have read this book cover-to-cover at least 6 times! Must read for new teachers.

Unit A helps you to understand why you are teaching in the first place.

1.  Why you need to succeed on the first days of school:

• Consistency is key:  this creates a safe environment for students that is also predictable and nurturing
• Come up with a good classroom management plan and stick to it
• A sample classroom management plan from Smart Classroom Management
• A sample powerpoint presentation
• A sample 2nd grade plan

Classroom management wall

Key elements of classroom management

• Script the first few days of school
• Some examples from the book and from online searches:
• Sample 1
• Sample 2
• Sample 3
• Sample 4
• Sample 5
• Key steps to include in your script:
• Greet students
• Assign seats beforehand
• Have an assignment on board
• Introduce yourself
• Teach procedures
• Explain rules and daily procedures (included in discipline plan)
• Introduce centers and classroom (and how you want your materials treated)
• Organize notebooks, label folders
• Practice, practice, practice!!!
• Note:  This is a very important step that I do every year.  Before the first day of school, I go over my old scripts and change it up to make it work for the new year.  I make notes to help with planning for the following year.  It gives me piece of mind the night before the first day and everything runs so smoothly!  

• Establish good control in the first week of school
• Know your procedures and how you want them to look
• Sample procedure plan
• List of daily procedures

• Know what you are doing
• Do things right and consistently (consistency is key)!!!

2.  What is an effective teacher?

• The effective teacher
• has positive expectations
• be clear and state these expectations
• believes the learner can learn
• don't "write off" your low groups
• knows that the learner will perform at the levels we expect.
• low expectations = low levels of achievement
• A good classroom manager
• establishes a productive and cooperative working environment
• all part of management plan
• designs lessons for student mastery
• plan with your individual students learning styles in mind
• Differentiated Instruction
• evaluates for mastery
• I like to plan with Bloom's Taxonomy verb list in front of me

Blooms

3.  How you can be a happy first-year teacher:

• The best teachers are also the best students
• never stop learning, reading, observing
• Here are some organizations listed in the book to reasearch as needed:
• Learning Disabilities Association of America
• Association for Educational Communications and Technologies
• Texas Association for the Gifted and Talented
• Council for Exceptional Children
• Council for Learning Disabilities
• International Society for Technology in Education
• National Association for Bilingual Education
• National Association for Gifted Children
• National Council for Teachers of Mathematics
• Induction training for new teachers
• to help you know what to do on the first day of school
• mentor programs available to new teachers through your school district
• Rely on your colleagues
• beg, borrow, steal
• find a positive mentor
• get to know all your colleagues

4.  How you can be an effective veteran teacher:

• embrace change
• teach as enthusiastically as you expect your students to learn
• use the summer to recharge!
• remember that the school was built for the students, you are employed to serve them
• don't isolate yourself, be proactive
• don't be cynical
• bad habits are difficult to break
• LISTEN!!!

5.  Why should you use proven research-based practices?

• It is erroneous to teach as you were taught.
• Teach based on achievement and the success of your students, not fads
• if something isn't working, toss it and try something new
• don't force a lesson because you want to stick to your plans, be flexible 
• Examples:
• Research shows questioning should be done throughout the text, not at the end.
• time on task
• cooperative learning
• extensive reading
• Know what, how, and why you are doing something.

This concludes Unit A from How to be an Effective Teacher the First Days of School.  I hope you found this helpful.

If you are reading/have read this book, what did you find most helpful from this unit?  For me, it was the scripts.  I cannot tell you how helpful it is to have those first few days organized!

*Posted with permission.