Surviving Day One

On this first day of school students will have:

1. Breakfast
2. A car or bus tag (all students, no exceptions)
3. Have a session on sexual harassment (classroom teacher)(age appropriate)
4. A Fire Drill (The Fire Department will surprise us twice in the first 10 days)

On the first day of school students will not have:
1. Resource Teachers
2. EC classes
3. Specials (Art, Music, P.E., Spanish, etc.)
4. ESL
5. Speech
6. Media time
7. Technology Lab

Things to do:
I. Establish your expectations

A. Behavior (reinforce these everyday of the year)
1. Behavior expectations
2. Positive consequences
3. Negative consequences
4. Practice appropriate behavior
5. Start training students in your management techniques
6. Be proactive rather than reactive
a. Anticipate problems with activities
b. Plan how you will address issues should they occur
7. Establish procedures for…
a. Classroom participation
b. Sharpening pencils
c. Lining up
d. Using the restroom
e. Moving about the building
f. Attending assemblies

B. Academics
1. What is acceptable work (give examples)
2. What is not acceptable work (give examples)
3. What information you want on every paper turned in
4. How you want the information placed on every paper turned in
5. How you expect students to perform (positively)
6. Always have more to do than you can possibly get done

C. Homework
1. What days of the week there will be homework
2. When homework is due
3. How much homework to expect each day

II. Practice school and classroom rules

III. Plan an exciting day to get them energized
A. Hands-on
B. Visual
C. Action oriented

IV. Be positive and upbeat

V. Be patient
A. With your students, it's all new to them
B. With staff because there will be waits and hang-ups that need to be ironed out

Make it a great day and leave them hanging with something each day that will make them want to come back for 179 more tomorrows.