My First Class

By Kaitlin Strejlau

College of Education
Long Island University, C. W. Post Campus
September , 2010

Today was the first day of the Fall of 2010 Semester. As always the predominant amount of my classes were awkward and overwhelming as usual. First day of classes is always awkward because no one really goes out of their way to introduce themselves to anyone. It is also overwhelming because every professor has their expectations, and also a list of all the work that must be completed by the semesters end. When I arrived at my last class of the day, EDI-17, the class was greeted by a bubbly and energetic professor. This is already a plus for the class in my mind because I don’t like when I have dry, boring professors. The major focus of today’s class was the “Name Game.” This is an activity that I have done many times in the past. In my opinion it is a game that is usually associated with young children, so when the idea of playing a name game was first brought up I groaned along with a few other students. Once we started to play the game everyone began to be more relaxed. Students were smiling and laughing, talking and joking. I was very surprised to see how quickly we all began to remember the names, and also how everyone began to get along.

I feel that the name game was a very beneficial part of our first lesson today, and it is also something I would like to try with my own students in the future. I would really like to teach the 10th grade, and I feel that this class will be extremely beneficial to me in this area. I picked tenth grade because they call it the “sophomore slump,” as an educator I want to help children in all areas of their lives and their growth, not just their educational growth. I feel that learning the psychological and developmental aspects of the adolescent student will help me understand them more, and also help me teach them more efficiently. I am very excited to continue on in this class, I only hope that it stays as interactive and interesting as day one.

.