Essential Basics Preparing New Hires for the First Days of School

The First Days of School “What you do on the first days of school will determine your success or failure for the rest of the school year. You will either win or lose your class on the first days of school.” “Effective teachers spend the first two weeks teaching students to be in control of their own learning.” “Student achievement at the end of the year is directly related to the degree to which the teacher establishes good control of the classroom procedures in the very first week of the school year. --Harry K. Wong and Rosemary T. Wong

Effective Teachers People who do things right are efficient. People who do things right over and over again, consistently, are effective. The three characteristics of an Effective Teacher: Has positive expectations for student success. Is an extremely good classroom manager. Knows how to design lessons for student mastery.

Independent Task Look over the handout with Harry Wong’s 3 Characteristics of Effective Teachers. Highlight any of the subheadings/descriptors that you feel are vital to establish during the first days of school.

Gut Check Is it vital for you to be ready with: Positive expectations and a Plan for classroom management and Purposeful, student-centered lessons for the first days of school? Why?

What They Said. . . “The effective teachers spent time organizing and structuring their classrooms so the students knew what to do to succeed.” –Douglas Brooks “I like coming to this school because everyone knows what to DO. No one yells at us and we can get on with learning.” --an at-promise student “The beginning teacher must perform the full complement of duties while learning those duties.” –Harry & Rosemary Wong

How do we do it? Effective teachers script their first days of school. The entire purpose of today is to help you with that script to help you feel ready to establish expectations, management and lessons during those first days that you can consistently follow through with and build upon on all the remaining days of school to ultimately result in high levels of learning for your students, because you had effective first days of school

Mentoring is the answer “What will really prepare you for teaching is if your district has an organized new teacher induction program. Induction is a structured two- year (or longer) program that will train and support you as you become an effective teacher.” Mentoring is the answer

Essential Basics Disclosure document/welcome letter Meet the Faculty/Team Professionalism Site Protocols/Procedures Physical environment/Classroom Setup Management Big 8 Engagement Strategies First 10 Days of School Lesson Planning Curriculum Maps

Effective Characteristic #1 Positive Expectations Based on the research which demonstrates that the learner will produce what the teacher expects the learner to produce. . . the “self-fulfilling prophesy.” Table Task: Which of the Essential Basics relate to Positive Expectations?

Effective Characteristic #2 Classroom Management The most important factor governing student learning is Classroom Management. Effective teachers teach classroom management procedures that create consistency Table Task: Which of the Essential Basics relate to Classroom Management?

Effective Characteristic #3 Lesson Mastery Table Task: Which of the Essential Basics relate to Lesson Mastery?

Basic Essentials & Wong’s Big Three Has positive expectations for student success. Physical environment/Classroom Setup First 10 Days of School Disclosure document/welcome letter Meet the Faculty/Team Professionalism Is an extremely good classroom manager. Site Protocols Classroom Management Big 8 Engagement Strategies Knows how to design lessons for student mastery. Lesson Planning Curriculum Maps

Our Goals for Essential Basics Training: We promise to give you information (Basic Essentials), support and opportunities to create/solidify your First Days of School script. We ask that you do your very best to relate the information/tasks we give you to the very real responsibility of determining success with your students this school year.