I like your confrontation example. You’ve got the sweet and the sour all in one. Nice work.

@ Dan: In agreement, except on the Jonas Brothers. In my school, i-pod are a big issue. Kids in the hall wearing them. Teachers pointing, tapping, raising their voices. Confrontation. A lot of eye rolling. A real Michael Scott ‘lose, lose, lose’.

So, to avoid ‘conflict’, I’ve gone the route of saying, ‘hey, you listening to Celine Dion? If so, you can keep it on.’ I’ve never had a conflict, talk back, brush off.

Not a one listening to Celine!

Alas, my heart will go on.

On another note, how do you determine your blogroll?

My piece of advice that I can throw in is just to be genuine with the students. Of course you will have to be the heavy some times, and of course you will joke sometimes (I love that quote about the Jonas brothers…I’m “borrowing” that for sure). But as soon as the students see that you are genuinely interested about them and about the subject matter, things will go your way much more easily.

My kids and I have been back in the swing of things for 7 days now and I finally feel as though I have the hang on being the kind of teacher they want/deserve/need.

I’m swift to correct those behaviors that need correction, lenient with those students who need room to err, and simultaneously jovial and stoic…depending on the situation.

They’re having a tough time figuring me out this year because they can’t paint me into a corner.

The results: Classroom management is at an all time best for me, kids come to school eager to learn and will let me know if they didn’t learn anything that day ( this is a rare occurrence but it happened to me yesterday ), and my students and I have already developed the easy going rapport that generally takes until April to develop.

Even with 10 years of teaching experience, the first day of school still gives me a bewildering amount of nervous energy infused with a sense of major insecurity. Impressions are everything, conclusions already made based on a 10 minute introductory speech. As you said it yourself, we must carefully craft our “teacher” personalities within the first few minutes those kids arrive in our classrooms. Difficult as this may be (I teach 7th and 8th grade mathematics), I try to remain confident and relaxed in such a way that I “appear” enthusiastic yet in control. I even give the kids a letter and policy of my expectations just to set the “tone” in class. Middle school students often have the notorious reputation for being antagonistic towards adults. They crave independence and structure, yet at the same time, ask for our endearing affections. I embrace these temperamental personalities all in the name of humor. The three F’s (Firm, Fair, and Friendly) is part of my teaching kit that keeps me relatively attached to the ground. My mother, also a teacher, gave me this sage advice when I started the profession.

i want to second what jenny says. developmentally the brain just doesn’t seem to have a space for “bad adults” for quite some time (obviously this is speaking generally). in the private schools i’ve worked in, a general antagonism towards adults becomes quite visible and widespread around grade 7/8.

so what does that mean for the first day / the impression you want to make? in my two years with the middle schoolers, i think it means you can’t be so loose on the rules. order and equality are extremely important for that level. they’re so much in their lives that is Going Crazy (hormones?!) that they need school to be a place with as many Routines as possible.

but yeah, on the whole what you have written here feels right. glad to know that you’re still on your game, dan.