Preparing to teach: tips and ideas for the first day

Tomorrow (Nov. 13, 2008 at 12:30 in PDR) Cindy Otts will be facilitating a Dine & Design workshop on "Tips and ideas for the first day." Please RSVP to Ben Hayes if you plan to attend.

This dovetails nicely with Janet Velazquez' Academic Symposium yesterday on What the Best Teachers Do. A big part of Janet's presentation talked about preparation and touched on ideas such as:

• making promises rather than expectations,
• framing the big provocative question that guides the inquiry of the class
• figuring out what students know and understand, and
• creating an environment conducive to learning

This also connects to Tips Ben has circulated re participatory lectures (particularly the idea of framing the big question). Ben has also shared the Hawaii Community College system links which have loads of Tips on many teaching concerns including the first day.

Cindy's workshop will be collaborative. Consider checking out the first KCKCC wiki, where we collected icebreakers from our faculty - to build community, establish trust and start class off. But NOTE: Icebreakers and community building isn't just for the first week or two; like all relationships, classroom dynamics require maintenance.