If you enter the classroom with the mindset of someone who "assumes the worst," you may expect that the students will be noisy and difficult to control - and so they probably will be exactly that. On the other hand, if you are expecting quiet, well-behaved students who raise their hands to ask questions and remain quiet whenever you want to speak, you may be bitterly disillusioned. No classroom in the world is entirely filled with "good" or "bad" behaved students.
When your students walk into the classroom, how will you greet them? What will be their first impression of you? Will they think you are friendly or formidable? The first impression can shape the whole school year. Striking balance between creating a positive relationship with students while retaining a level of authority and control can be key to a teacher's success.
The first impression on the very first day is CRITICAL.
Consider how adults socialize when they make new acquaintances. Don't we take time to ask each other our names, where we live and where we come from? Don't we want to share information about our jobs, hobbies, interests and our families? Maybe we have mutual acquaintances or have been to the same places. We may even have met before. Those initial conversations establish our connections and we take in a lot of information about each other.
Non-verbal impressions communicate even more strongly than do words. Some social scientists estimate that perhaps 93% of our communications are non-verbal. We observe each other and gather thousands of subconscious impressions. Eye contact, body language, tone of voice, facial expressions, quality of energy in gestures -- these are just some of the ways we communicate who we are and what we gather as our impressions of other people.
It is the small but crucial choices you make about your appearance that will communicate most about you in the early days.
All the best,
Steve
Steve
Leave a Comment
Post a Comment