On the first day of class I start out by making sure students are in the
right class, along with a brief introduction of who I am. (Since I'm not
much older than many of my students, this is a good time to explain my
background and why I've been hired to teach the course.) From there I go
around the room and have the students introduce themselves, which has the
added benefit of checking roll for the administrators without having to
butcher the students' names on the first day. After that, I dive into the
syllabus and go over it in fairly good detail, especially the points about
plagarism, late policy, acceptable vs inacceptable work (papers have to be
typed for example), and what my goals are for them during the semester. I
then go through the list of important dates (both for the university, such
as drop deadlines, and for the course, such as assignment due dates, exam
dates, etc.) Then it becomes Q&A time. I let the students ask me questions
for a few minutes. I also try to start a dialogue with the class as a whole
trying to calm their fears. (I teach the methods course and it is intense,
but I honestly think that any student can do the work if they really put
their mind to it. And I stress that I do understand their situation of
being a student.)
Finally, after all of this is out of the way, I give a brief lecture that
introduces why they need to have a methods course (generally an overview of
why the scientific method is important and how it applies to psychology.)
By this point students are starting to feel overwhelmed by the topic and
the weekly assignments that are coming up. I've realized that if I keep
them too long (the class meets for 2 hours each time) then most of them
stop paying attention. I figure it's pointless to keep lecturing if none of
them are paying attention...
Just my first day plans...
- Marc
G. Marc Turner, MEd
Lecturer & Head of Computer Operations
Department of Psychology
Southwest Texas State University
San Marcos, TX 78666
phone: (512)245-2526
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
