The First Day

The first day of class is hard. There is so much to do. Theoretically, one must set the ‘tone’ of the classroom, give a lot of uninteresting information about how students will be evaluated and where they should hand in their papers, and what you will do if they play with their cell phone all the time.

And you should inspire them with how wonderful your topic is.

I really wanted to do this demo. Even people who hate science usually don’t mind watching chemicals turn colors and bubble. However, I did not have time to find everything, set it up, and practice it before today. I did do that this afternoon, so I will do the demo tomorrow. Today I read ancient philosophy.

Reading ancient philosophy is not quite as weird as it sounds. Back then, philosophers thought they had to account for physical realities, and that physical realities could teach them about the nature and meaning of existence. Some of them wrote extensively on atomic theory and atomic movement. I read some fragments of Leucippus and Democritus, because they are the oldest thinkers we know about who struggled with atomic theory, and then I read Lucretius because he defends atomic theory from daily, ordinary observations and phenomena. He also does it in poetry. I wanted to surprise them, and throw them off a little bit.

I definitely did that. I have no idea how successful or otherwise this was overall. Some students thought it was cool, because they like Latin and ancient history. Some students didn’t like philosophy, or poetry, and weren’t as interested. I tried to get their reactions and affirm both opinions as being fine, so they know that they don’t have to agree with me on every little thing to get my approval. (tone setting attempt).

I made several mistakes. I didn’t bring water or food. I didn’t have quite enough planned. I did all my student teaching in a block schedule (which I love for teaching science), and I underestimated just how long 50 minutes can be. Especially when the students. won’t. talk.

I found that bizarre. My students would not answer questions or volunteer ideas, even relatively obvious ones. They were very uncomfortable talking in class (not to each other, I don’t mean to suggest that high school students were shy of socializing). I could not figure it out. The other classes I have been in always had at least a third, sometimes two thirds of the class who were willing to volunteer, and when you called on the other third, they usually had something to say. Granted, I am new, I am still learning their names and it was Monday after the break. I have worked on channeling social energy, and asking better questions, and directing discussions and comments, but I have never had to figure out how to overcome the complete, dead-pan, silence that one of my classes gave me. I have never seen such passive students.

And these are the successful students, the honors students. I might not be so surprised to find the average B student in the average class succeed by being passive. It’s unfortunate, but true. But to see honors students, many of whom are straight-A students, be so passive was frightening. What will they do when they get to college? No wonder people hate high school if they are rewarded for being regurgitating automatons. Everyone keeps telling me what “good” kids I have, and how lucky I am. In one sense, I understand because it is an urban school and over half the students have mild to moderate learning disabilities and over half are on free/reduced lunch. On the other hand, I bristle at the implication that the other kids are “bad,” and I think that my students have challenges of their own. I am still dreading homeroom a little bit tomorrow. It is demographically the reverse of my honors classes, and I apparently have several challenging, uncooperative students. Although I can hardly blame them, the way homeroom is done here is really lame.

I feel generally positive, but I can’t say what specific things were positive. Some of the students seemed to warm up to me very quickly, I’m learning where everything is in the very well stocked lab (there is a prep room for the chemists, and another for the biologists, the science department has our own computer lab, and the rooms are huge with plenty of lab space), and I haven’t spilled chemicals on anyone yet. The department is very supportive.

There are a lot of things to get used to. During first period, there are announcements, a moment of silence, and the pledge of allegiance. There are bells. The bells go almost constantly during third hour because the wacky lunch schedule starts then. I’m right next to the office of the assistant principal for freshman, so students being disciplined are constantly outside my door.

Some things I did well: I walked around the classroom and got within arms reach of every student, and I practiced wait time well.

I can’t wait for the demo. But I need to plan a little more stuff for tomorrow. Boyle’s Law, anyone?