First Day(s) of Classes

How to Cre­ate an Engag­ing First Day of Class

The first few class­es are pos­si­bly the most impor­tant of the course, because they set the tone for the rest of the term. These class­es pro­vide us with an oppor­tu­ni­ty to ensure that stu­dents feel wel­come, seen, and excit­ed about their learn­ing jour­ney.  While intro­duc­ing key infor­ma­tion about the course is impor­tant, it’s also essen­tial to focus on:

• build­ing rela­tion­ships — between stu­dents, and between stu­dents and the instruc­tor
• lay­ing the foun­da­tions of com­mu­ni­ty and co-cre­at­ing agree­ments and expec­ta­tions of how every­one will come togeth­er
• cre­at­ing curios­i­ty to encour­age stu­dents to engage active­ly from the start

Before the First Class: 

1. If you are new to teach­ing at NIC, read Tips-for-Teach­ing-At-NIC for infor­ma­tion on learn­ing plat­forms, col­lege sys­tems and poli­cies, and how to get help
2. If you’re teach­ing face-to-face, vis­it the class­room you’re in and decide how you’re going to set up the tables and chairs. Con­sid­er using a set-up that max­i­mizes stu­dents’ abil­i­ty to inter­act with each oth­er (i.e., not star­ing at each oth­er’s backs)
3. Whether teach­ing face-to-face or online, prac­tice with the tech­nol­o­gy you will use — this saves the first day stress of try­ing to get the pro­jec­tor to work, or log in to a teach­ing plat­form, etc. If you’re teach­ing online, prac­tice with the tools you plan to use to reduce the pos­si­bil­i­ty of unex­pect­ed glitch­es
4. Write a plan for the first class. Even if you’ve been teach­ing for decades, hav­ing a plan in mind ensures we remem­ber to be inten­tion­al in what we include the first time we meet a new group of stu­dents
5. Ensure you have a copy of the class list. This may change over the first few class­es; how­ev­er, it’s good to be able to start greet­ing stu­dents by their name. This helps them feel wel­come
6. If you are using a Bright­space site for your course, read the Term Start Course Check­list and Time Sav­ing Tips and Tools 

The First Class

1. Choose an activ­i­ty to spark curios­i­ty about the course con­tent before hand­ing out the course out­line. Curios­i­ty sparks engage­ment
2. Give stu­dents time to get to know each oth­er. We work togeth­er more effec­tive­ly when we feel safe. Safe­ty has to be inten­tion­al­ly cre­at­ed in a class­room and is built on trust. Know­ing a lit­tle about oth­ers in the room fos­ters con­nec­tion and grows trust
3. Col­lect infor­ma­tion about stu­dents that will help inform future activ­i­ties. For exam­ple, their rea­son for choos­ing this course, academic/career goals, any wor­ries about their stud­ies, gen­er­al inter­ests, etc. 
4. Focus on inclu­sion. A sense of belong­ing pro­motes learn­ing 
5. Let the stu­dents get to know you. Shar­ing some­thing of our­selves (with­out over­shar­ing) shows we’re human
6. Speak to every stu­dent and learn their pre­ferred name/pronoun and how to pro­nounce their name cor­rect­ly. We all want to be seen
7. Where pos­si­ble, co-cre­ate with stu­dents, com­mu­ni­ty guide­lines for expect­ed behav­iors. Let stu­dents explore what they expect from you and also from each oth­er. Give them time to reflect on their respon­si­bil­i­ties. As instruc­tors, we guide the class­room, but a com­mu­ni­ty of learn­ing is co-cre­at­ed with stu­dents
8. End this first class with a call to action to pro­mote curios­i­ty. Get stu­dents excit­ed about the next time they will come togeth­er.

Get­ting Stu­dents Start­ed

1	Ori­ent Stu­dents to the Course Out­line The course out­line is not just a con­tract between the instruc­tor and stu­dents. It’s a com­mu­ni­ca­tion tool that pro­vides key infor­ma­tion and helps stu­dents deter­mine if the course is for them. Per­haps most crit­i­cal­ly, it is the first ‘meet­ing’ with the stu­dents, offer­ing them a first impres­sion of their instruc­tor As a min­i­mum, walk stu­dents through the course out­line to ensure every­body has a shared under­stand­ing of how the learn­ing will unfold Con­sid­er using an inter­ac­tive expe­ri­ence to get stu­dents to read the course out­line, for exam­ple: Ask stu­dents to read the out­line ahead of the first class and give them a short quiz on key details (indi­vid­u­al­ly or as a team activ­i­ty) In teams, ask stu­dents to review a sec­tion of the out­line and present key items to the rest of the class
2	High­light Stu­dent respon­si­bil­i­ties It is impor­tant that stu­dents are aware of their respon­si­bil­i­ties as learn­ers. This includes meet­ing the con­duct expec­ta­tions out­lined in Pol­i­cy 3–06 to main­tain “a cul­ture of integri­ty, mutu­al respect and respon­si­ble behav­iours.” It also means active­ly par­tic­i­pat­ing in their learn­ing Instruc­tors can remind stu­dents of their respon­si­bil­i­ties and the sup­ports avail­able to help them meet these expec­ta­tions Encour­age stu­dents to engage with the resources on Learn­er Respon­si­bil­i­ties on the Learn Any­where site for stu­dents
3	High­light Stu­dent Sup­ports avail­able NIC pro­vides sup­ports such as: Coun­selling, Elders in Res­i­dence, Peer Tutors, Ear­ly Assist, and Thrive Stu­dents have a vari­ety of needs, and North Island Col­lege has many sup­ports in place to help learn­ers suc­ceed, includ­ing the Depart­ment of Acces­si­ble Learn­ing Ser­vices, to ensure that stu­dents with spe­cif­ic learn­ing needs have the accom­mo­da­tions they need Show stu­dents the Stu­dent Sup­ports Mod­ule includ­ed in the shell of each of their Bright­space cours­es
4	Sup­port stu­dent Metacog­ni­tion Help stu­dents become more aware of their think­ing as learn­ers by fos­ter­ing metacog­ni­tion Strong metacog­ni­tive skills enhance learn­ing by enabling indi­vid­u­als to reflect on their own think­ing process­es, allow­ing them to strate­gize, self-mon­i­tor, and adapt their approach­es for bet­ter prob­lem-solv­ing and under­stand­ing Direct stu­dents to the Learn­ing Strate­gies page of the Learn Any­where site for stu­dents

A PDF ver­sion of the above tips is avail­able here: Get­ting Stu­dents Start­ed