Ten Ways to Engage Your Students on the First Day of Class

Like it or not, your students are going to form opinions about you and your course in the first moments of the first day of class.

• Do you want your students to perceive you as a competent, efficient expert in the field?
• Do you also want them to feel adequately prepared for your course and ready to learn the material you plan to present?
• Do you want to spend the vast majority of class time on instruction and not on taking roll, handing out materials, etc.?
• Do you want students to participate respectfully and appropriately?
• Do you want them to come back every day and arrive on time?

It is entirely possible.

Remember that what you do on the first day determines how much students will learn over the course of the semester (or trimester or quarter) and how they will evaluate you at the end of the term.

To get every course off to its best possible start, Ten Ways to Engage Your Students on the First Day of Class: A Magna Publications White Paper is the place to begin.

We give you the simple tools and strategies that create and maintain an optimal classroom environment.

You learn about several simple steps and procedures that minimize time spent on classroom management and increase instructional minutes.

For example:

• Using an entrance table saves time and protects student confidentiality
• Strategic introductions provide the information instructors need to take attendance without calling roll, creating a respectful and appropriate classroom culture.
• Daily routines and exercises encourage students to arrive on time and also generate exam questions and review materials.

This professional development white paper is based on a Magna Online Seminar presented by Mary C. Clement, Ph.D.. Clement is a professor of teacher education at Berry College, northwest of Atlanta, Georgia. She teaches graduate courses in curriculum theory, instructional management, and supervision, as well as undergraduate courses in foreign language methods. She is also the director of the college’s Center for Teaching Excellence. Clement earned her doctorate from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is the author of six books.

In Ten Ways to Engage Your Students on the First Day of Class, you will learn strategies that allow Clement to manage the classroom, increase student success, and improve course evaluations.

This 40-page white paper provides detailed information on:

• Preparation for the first day
• Classroom management procedures that get students in the door and straight to work
• Classroom arrangement and use of entrance tables to facilitate learning
• Importance of land tactics for earning names
• Focus activities
• “Today We Will” roadmaps for each day of class
• Introductions to facility civility among students
• Interest inventories to gauge class preparedness and individual student goals
• Student folders for assignment dissemination and collection
• First-day lecture strategies
• Beyond-the-first-day lecture approaches

This important resource equips new and experienced instructors with the classroom management tools that they probably did not learn in graduate school but that have a measurable impact on instructional success.

The Magna Publications White Paper Series is dedicated to helping college professionals confront the most challenging issues at the forefront of higher education practice. We strive to bring readers essential, valuable content on the topics of greatest interest and value to colleges and universities.

Ten Ways to Engage Your Students on the First Day of Class: A Magna Publications White Paper is an essential, informative resource for faculty members, adjunct professors, and other course instructors.

Take control of your classroom, your students’ success, and your course evaluations by setting the tone on the first day of class. Learn how by investing in this solution-filled Magna Publications White Paper today.

Cost

You can download the PDF of this white paper, or get the print version mailed to you.

Make this white paper available for ongoing training

Order the Campus Access License and load the White Paper onto your institution’s internal Web site for unlimited, convenient, on-demand access for all members of your campus community. Read all the benefits of the Campus Access License.

TO ORDER: Ten Ways to Engage Your Students on the First Day of Class
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