My First Day of School Plan - No Syllabus, No Icebreakers, No Standing at the Front of the Room
It is July 28th. I have done a very good job this summer of actually resting - not completely turning off my teacher brain, because that is impossible for me - but genuinely stepping back from the day-to-day minutia of planning. Because last year was hard and I needed the distance.
But now I'm ready. And I have a first day plan I want to share.
It involves stations, zero icebreakers, and me walking around the room with a clipboard greeting every single student by name before I say anything else. Here's exactly how I do it…
What I won't be doing on the first day
I stopped doing these things years ago and have not looked back:
Standing at the front of the room calling roll. I know my students' names before they walk in. I will not make them perform their own name in front of a room full of strangers on the first day of school.
Going over the syllabus. Procedures and expectations emerge organically over the first week or two. Reading a document out loud on day one is not community building - it's compliance theater.
Traditional icebreakers. Two truths and a lie. Tell me a fun fact about yourself. I respectfully and firmly decline. These feel synthetic to teenagers and they know it. There is a better way.
What I do instead: four stations
Students come in and move through four stations. The activities are self-directed, which is by design - because I am spending the first portion of class making my way around the room with my roster on a clipboard, finding each student, learning their face, saying their name, and asking them something real.
That moment - teacher comes to you, knows your name, sees you - is worth more than any icebreaker ever invented. It is also terrifying to implement the first time. Do it anyway… ;)
The four stations shift depending on the year and the context, but they always share a few principles:
Something creative that requires no prior knowledge. A writing prompt, an image to respond to, a question about the world rather than about school.
Something that reveals student interests. Not "what's your favorite book" - that question shuts down students who don't read for pleasure. Something more open-ended and less loaded.
Something physical or tactile. Especially after a summer away from school, students need to do something with their hands.
Something collaborative but low-pressure. A question on the board that students can add to without being called on - a chalk talk, a sticky note wall, an adding-on activity.
The philosophy underneath it
Whatever you do on the first day is a signal. It tells students what this class is going to feel like for the next nine weeks or six months or a full year. If day one is passive, you have communicated: this is a class where you sit and receive. If day one is active, engaged, and student-centered even a little chaotic - you have communicated something very different.
I would rather have a first day that is a little messier and a little louder than a first day that is perfectly orderly and completely forgettable.
Watch the full video for the specific stations I'm planning for the 2021-22 school year, including how I'm thinking about movement and COVID protocols and what to do when you genuinely don't know what your physical classroom will look like yet.
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