8 First-day jitters
Teaching is rewarding but challenging work, and it is normal to feel nervous and vulnerable before stepping into a classroom (not just for the first time, but at any point in your teaching career). Remember that it is not only normal but productive to learn from challenges you may encounter as you teach. Here are a few points that might help you to feel more confident during your first day of class:
- Make sure your syllabus/handouts are available through your ICON site and are printed (if necessary).
- Practice your welcome, self-introduction, icebreakers, goal-setting activity, syllabus discussion, and the teaching you plan to facilitate. Planning substantive teaching for the first day can help set the tone for the course and allow students to understand what the course will be like and spark their thinking about course content.
- Arrive at the classroom early and organize your handouts and presentation materials. Make sure you can access and use any technology.
- Post the day’s learning objectives and outline on the board, document camera, or PowerPoint slide.
Some instructors share that they are afraid that they will be asked a question they don’t know how to answer on their first day. They worry that it would affect trust and their creditability in students’ eyes. If you cannot answer a student’s question, acknowledge that and thank the student for asking the question, assuring the class that you will find the answer before the next session. On the course ICON site or at the next session, provide the answer and the source of information and explain how the information relates to the course. Encourage students to keep asking questions. In her book Teaching What You Don’t Know, Therese Huston shares that faculty members who position themselves as co-learners in this space and highlight the inherent learning component in their teaching feel more confident during their course and experience less pressure (Huston, 2009). Acknowledging your positionality can help you to set the tone for the semester.
💡 Please reflect:
Take a few moments to draft a self-introduction that you could use to set the tone for the course when you first meet your students. You could share what got you interested in the field, being open (as much as you are comfortable) about your identity and how it impacts you in your role. Consider including the reasons you are excited about the course and a fundamental question that the course can help students tackle or resolve.
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