A Fresh Start

Today marked the start of 3rd term. While I could remark on how it's amazing that the school year is more than half over at this point, and how involved and wild these past four-plus months have been, instead I want to talk about one particular opportunity the start of this new term brings me.

I teach SAT Prep, which is a semester-long class. Meaning that the students I've gotten to know over the first two terms of school in that class are no longer in my classroom. Which, on the one hand, sucks, because I've grown fond of them, and have enjoyed our class. And on the other hand, that rocks, because some of them are real pains in the ass, and I'm glad that from now on I only have to deal with them when I pass them in the hallway.

But what is greatest about starting with new students is that I have a chance to make up for the missteps I took with that SAT Prep class the first two terms. Today I had a group of students for the first time. I gave the opening day spiel I gave 6 times in 2 days back in September. This time, though, it was much different.

My nerves weren't present the way they were on Day 1. Having experienced the entirety of the SAT Prep course, I was able to give a far better, far more rooted-in-experience overview of the class rules, and my expectations of them. A lot less wingin' it, as the class rules and expectations I announced in September were based mainly on colleagues' recommendations. This time, having direct experience with what worked, and what didn't, I could choose my words more appropriately.

When playing a video game, it's really nice to know that if you die right away, or the Tetris pieces don't work out for you in the first 30 seconds, you can hit the magical "Reset" button and start again. Of course, life does not mimic that. However, being able to start fresh now, instead of having to wait until September 2008, is a similar feeling. I feel a lot more able to control the direction of the class now than I did in September.
It showed - the way one of my SAT classes went was clearly the result of my lack of force at the start. Without a strong lead right from the start, most any class will go haywire, with students thinking they run the show, and can do whatever they want, sans consequences. Trying to steer a class back under the "easy to control" umbrella after they've experienced freedom to jive with the teacher about South Park, for instance, is pretty damn hard if the initial power scales haven't been tipped in the teacher's direction.

So it's nice to have this opportunity now, without having to wait until September, to get off on the right foot with a new set of students.

Time will tell if the order of this class disintegrates, but I'm very happy with the improvements I've made to my first-day setup of a course.

Stay tuned...