First Impressions: Faculty Make the Most of Day One in the Classroom
August 27, 2019
- Author
- Jay Pfeifer
The first and most important lesson on the opening day of class is simple: First impressions matter.
Chris Marsicano, whose classes focus on policy making, uses the first class as a hands-on opportunity for students to master a skill they will need. He makes a 10-minute presentation about the course, then he opens the syllabus up for negotiation.
âDo they want tests or papers? Are there topics theyâd like to see us cover? Thatâs what we negotiate. They have a week to get back to me,â he said.
âIt builds ownership of the class, but most importantly, it teaches them how to negotiate,â the visiting assistant professor of Education Studies said. âMaking policies means learning the art of negotiation and meaningful compromise.â
Each professor approaches the first day differently but they all want the same thing: Students need to understand how the class will work.
That may mean a simple review of the syllabus, the basic framework of the course. Kevin Smith, associate professor of biology, goes deeper, teaching a âmeta-class: a class about the class.â
âMy goal is to treat students like adults who deserve to know about whatâs going on in the classroom, but it also helps make clear that I put thought and planning into almost everything we do in my classes,â he said. âI donât want anything to seem arbitrary, and the way I do that is by telling students why weâre doing something.â
First order of business: Get students talking.
âOn day one, I start by asking students to do some work together so they get comfortable exchanging ideas with each other in small groups and with the class as a wholeâthey get used to the idea that I guide the class, I do not âteachâ it.â
Devyn Benson, chair and associate professor of Africana Studies and Latin American Studies, gets her students talking right away as well.
âIf a student doesn't hear their voice spoken out loud in the first week of class, they are much less likely to speak up later,â she said.
And Benson jumps right into sensitive subjects.
âOn the first day we are all equally awkward, so we all speak and share something personal like a racial autobiography or a snippet of our family history.â
Diving right into personal narratives can be touchy. But thatâs the point. By lowering those barriers to discussionâneutralizing fear and discomfort as much as possibleââWe all feel much more comfortable with each other and more likely to speak up when we start talking about complex topics like slavery, colonialism and racial injustice in the present day,â she said.
Faculty members are not only consumed with the âwhyâ of their classâthey have to master the âwho.â
And that means learning a lot of names very quickly.
John Kello, professor of psychology, asks his students to send him current photos so he can start matching names with faces as soon as possible.
Jeanne Neumann, professor of classics, performs something like a magic trick: She leaves the first class with the names of all of her students memorized.
Neumann walks around the class, collecting notecards from the students with their names on them, reciting names as she goes. The list of names gets longer with each cardâand the suspense grows.
âI stop after every few and do a test run,â she said. âThey realize what Iâm doing and watch, waiting for me to mess up. And I do, but itâs fine, and funny.â
âMidway through the first class I say itâs time for a quiz. They look panicked until they realize itâs my quiz and I go through their names again,â she said. âItâs a great ice-breaker since all the onus is on me, I never do it absolutely perfectly, and thatâs fine.â
Knowing her studentsâ names is important, but Neumann is sending another important message: âIt sets a tone that making mistakes is not a big deal,â she said. âIf the professor is not perfect, they donât have to be either.â
