The Last First Week

Post date: Jan 17, 2016 3:00:50 AM

Blog Posting for January 16, 2016

The Last First Week: Reflections on the Rituals of Starting a new semester

For the past twenty years, my life has been divided into Fall Semester, Holiday, Spring Semester, and Summer off (but prepping for Fall Semester). As a Community College instructor, I have gotten it down to a T: I have spent many hours picking textbooks, tweaking assignments, and putting together syllabi and handouts. I use Course packs, which students buy at the bookstore: this contains the syllabus, week by week schedule, and all of the handouts needed for the semester. I’ve had fun in recent years of creating title pages that included pictures of my grandson using my iPad, my high tech classrooms, and a favorite gift from my husband—a black hand statue that holds an iPhone.

The first week of classes is something that I anticipate with a mix of emotions. I’m excited to meet my new students, check out the technology updates in my classrooms, and reconnect with colleagues. I’ve already spent several days straightening my office at home and school, putting together my class lists from our online record system, and organizing my notebooks for each class, with my copies of the Course Packs. Last semester I had three rolling bags: one for each course that I taught. Restocking the rolling bag with books, pens and pencils, index cards, Kleenex, course packs and clipboards was part of the ritual of the Prep week before the start of classes.

There is something special about the first week of a new semester; we are all filled with hope. It is a new chapter, a clean slate, and a blank page for students and teachers alike. I won’t procrastinate this semester; I will check college email on a daily basis; I will start grading right away and get assignments back to students with meaningful feedback; I will come to every class; I will ask questions. There is a shyness in many students’ smiles as they enter the classroom, and often a sense of relief a few minutes in, when I have them talking to each other, and they are discovering that they have a lot in common with students sitting near them.

Increasingly, students are more prepared to use the technology we have: every class has an online presence with our campus having gone to Canvas for a course management system (CMS). The class website has discussion boards, drop boxes for assignments, announcements, a place for handouts and the syllabus, and of course, the grade book. Several of the courses I teach take place in a computer classroom, which adds another element altogether: some students are very tech savvy and comfortable creating and editing documents, using Google Docs, using the Course Website, and using web-based tools, while others are still learning and a little overwhelmed.

Fall Semester has Labor Day weekend; Spring Semester has MLK Day. Both give teachers and students alike a little break after the first long week. Learning a new schedule, learning names of students, getting back into the routine of the semester—it takes a lot of organization and energy. All of us have our own first week routines: as a Communications teacher, I try to create a sense of community in the classroom as well as introduce students to the subject matter, technology, and procedures of the course. So I did a brief activity where students pair up to discuss their responses to a short list of questions on the first day. On the second day, we did an activity on the computer to explore our class website, sign up for some required resources, and post a brief introduction on a discussion board.

These familiar rituals have become deeply ingrained and something that I anticipate and enjoy: however, the past week, with the start of the spring semester, the rituals came with a twist. It was my last first week back: I have decided to take early retirement in August, and devote myself to writing more, reading more, and being available to help with my grandchildren more. It struck me as I drove into the college parking lot this past Monday: I won’t be doing this in the fall. I got my wheeled bag out of the car and came into the library building, where my office is located. As soon as I got off the elevator, I saw a friend who is also retiring, and she said, “well, it’s our last first week, isn’t it?”

I recognize that I will miss many of those routines and rituals next fall. I will certainly miss interacting with my students and colleagues, exchanging ideas, discussing things we’ve read, and getting different perspectives. However, we have 15 more weeks of this semester to go through, and then it will be our last Finals week.

Most retired teachers admit to missing the classroom and students, but no one has ever said to me, “I really miss all of the grading, answering students’ email questions about their grade, attending all of those committee meetings, and doing reports!” I imagine that I will get teary eyed about retiring later on, but right now I need to get on Canvas and grade some homework.

What rituals and routines do you have as part of your job? Which ones would you miss after retiring?

Last updated on January 16, 2016