My first day of school prep and lesson plan...

I still get nervous for the first day, eleven years in.  I reread a bullet summary of “Teaching With Love and Logic,” say the Prayer of St. Francis, and take many deep breaths.  

I start with a thought out seating chart, placing students based on info gathered from IEP paperwork and previous teacher recommendations to try to set up students with positive experiences in their first day.  I have lab tables in pairs, I try to mix gender and play off of typical awkwardness in the first day.  

Students are expected to complete a notecard of information about themselves as a way for me to engage students while there may be confusion in the first couple of minutes.  I use the app InstaEditor to record images, names, and passions of each student, for my studying to learn quickly.  I know all students names and passions by day two of school.

I go over the norms I've stolen and tweaked from Dr. Kloser and the Trustey STEM teacher fellowship.  Norms: we're in this together, no riding the bench (appropriate cell phone use), in the trust tree (it's okay to be wrong, this is how we grow). I show these as images and post in my room.

I am also using a build a boat engineering activity (student sheet) where students are challenged to save as many threatened organisms by building a flotation device for as many pennies as possible. They have a set amount of supplies and then present their strategies and results.  The key idea is that they would build a better boat because they listened to the results of others.  

I go over basic expectations. Being nice and what that means. Materials for class. The use of productive talk moves. Basic procedures.

I rush in a quick cell parts activity to leave students with a little homework and get adjusted to fact of vocabulary as a necessity.  As the finale, I have students work through a list of materials and they work to determine their rule for what makes something alive through productive classroom discourse.  Additionally, each student gets a bean that they must make travel 2 meters with a box fan set to medium on day two.

The second day includes more discussion about what makes something alive, students designing an experiment testing seed germination in various conditions, and continue work on cellular level background information. Students also test their bean devices for first time, laying the ground work for natural selection and the use of models.