The First Days of School: How to Be an Effective Teacher (Book & DVD)

I bought this book as a student teacher because reviews had suggested it along with Teaching With Love and Logic. Overall, I would say that The First Days of School is a useful book, specifically its emphasis on the implementation of procedures as a way to prevent class management problems. However, the layout of the book seems to target an elementary student instead of a professional. The side bars contain important information at times, yet often, they seem to be space fillers to create a longer book. In addition, information is repeated so that the reader begins to feel like the authors believe that s/he is not intelligent enough to understand a concept when stated once. Lastly, the book is not well written, making it slightly difficult to read due to the style used.

I still would recommend the book. Some suggestions seem like they would be extremely effective (and even common sense or common courtesy) yet they are overlooked by most of the teachers whom I have observed as a student teacher. I feel that Harry and Rosemary Wong have written a book that reminds us that we are professionals who must act in a professional way, meaning: prepare as much as we can, create procedures that help to manage a classroom, be organized, dress well, become a role model, introduce and reinforce respect. They also include helpful examples of procedures that can easily be adapted to fit any classroom.

A great book but I found THE Classroom Management Book (by the same author) more helpful than this one. The First Days of School sets the stage for the strategy of procedures in the classroom. THE Classroom Management Book fast-forwards through theory and shows real-life procedures that you can actually use. If you already have a good grasp of teaching philosophies or you've been teaching for more than a year, you can probably skip this one and go straight to the sequel.

I recently received a copy of the newly revised version of The First Days of School, and I love it! I'm enjoying it so much that I don't want to rush through it. I read it a little at a time, savoring it like a wonderful piece of chocolate. Everything is clearly written, and much of what is written is quite profound in its simplicity. I love the sidebars with extra information and inspirational stories, as well as the internet links to additional resources. The page layout is attractive and easy to read. Many people are familiar with this book as a "must have" for beginning teachers, but as a 27-year veteran, I can say that this book is just as powerful today as it was when I first read it years ago. There is much wisdom tucked inside its pages!

I recently received a copy of the newly revised version of The First Days of School, and I love it! I'm enjoying it so much that I don't want to rush through it. I read it a little at a time, savoring it like a wonderful piece of chocolate. Everything is clearly written, and much of what is written is quite profound in its simplicity. I love the sidebars with extra information and inspirational stories, as well as the internet links to additional resources. The page layout is attractive and easy to read. Many people are familiar with this book as a "must have" for beginning teachers, but as a 27-year veteran, I can say that this book is just as powerful today as it was when I first read it years ago. There is much wisdom tucked inside its pages!

I used to to teach high school English and History in Singapore for eight years, and I am now settled in the US, and working towards a masters (and eventually a PhD) in education. I was recommended this book in one of my graduate classes, and am very impressed by it. In fact, I wish that I had this book when I was a beginning teacher 13 years ago. "The First Days of School" is a highly organized educational resource that takes educators (both novice and experienced) step-by-step through the skills and strategies that teachers can use to become more professional in their teaching and learning. It covers all the basics such as the skills needed to succeed in one's first year of teaching, i.e. having positive expectations for student success, being an efficient classroom manager, designing effective lesson plans and implementing them successfully in the classroom, and finally being a lifelong learner.

This edition of the book also comes with a DVD "The First Days of School" which features Chelonnda Seroyer, voted "Teacher-of-the-year" at her school. Ms. Seroyer used "The First Days of School" to come up with effective procedures that she could use in her classroom to attain positive learning outcomes, and shares these procedures in the DVD.

A handy and practical resource, I'd recommend this to all novice and experienced teachers.

Serious about confronting the challenge of your first year teaching?

Read instead: The Cornerstone: Classroom Management That Makes Teaching More Effective, Efficient, and Enjoyable, by by Angela S. Powell. You won't regret it.

First Days of School (FDOS), though well reviewed, was a shocking disappointment.

In very practical terms -- preparing for that first year of teaching -- it was, frankly, useless.

Full of smiley faces, bullet points, inspiring quotes, and sugary philosophy, FDOS lacked necessary down-to-earth preparation formats and was quickly set aside. A waste of limited preparation time.

Classroom management is the key to success in the classroom.

Angela Powell's book tackles classroom management head on, and in depth. My copy of The Cornerstone is extensively highlighted and Post-It-noted. My copy of FDOS had three astericks in it.

I gave my copy of First Days of School to the local Goodwill.

I wish I could have returned it for a full refund.

Truly disappointed.

Caveat: I have only started to read this book. Fact: this book's drivel sickened me within the first ten pages. We all acknowledge that education in the United States has declined over the last few decades, and this book outlines the reasons why. Indeed, it implores teachers to double down on the techniques that brought about the decline of education in the U.S.

Within the first ten pages, I discovered one of the primary tenets of this book: the reason students fail is because teachers fail them. Please. Education worked 30, 40, 50 years ago because we matched authority with responsibility. The moment we told the student that he/she was not responsible for his/her grade/result/product--the moment we declared everyone a winner--that is the moment that we started creating the entitled "Me" generation, where people get the benefits of society just for existing. It also put blame unfairly on teachers, which creates its own dysfunction both with teachers and the education system. The worst part is that with a few decades of fundamentally corrupt assumptions, we now have an educational institution that embraces these horrible tenets, and by doing so creates failure by design. Yet, we continue to praise teachers and educators who adopt this drivel, and we continue to watch education devolve. The educational institution derides practices from decades past and replaces them with forever failing "strategies"--and then rather ignorantly asks why it's not working.

Here's a quote that made me jump out of my seat: "Education is not teaching people what they do not know. Education is teaching people to behave as they are not already behaving." WHAT? Are you kidding me? I guess I can forget imparting knowledge to students. No, I should work on their behavior. Student misbehavior should be addressed through disciplinary measure by both parents and administrators. Excise the misbehaving students from the classroom, and the teachers can really teach. It worked that way decades ago, and it can work again. Do you want to return our nation to the leader in education? If so, then let's start matching authority with responsibility.

Other traps this book creates early on: redefinitions of "efficient" and "effective." This book redefines “efficient” as “Doing things right,” and “effective” as “Doing the right thing.” In neither case is that true, per the rest of the world’s conventions. “Efficient” is doing things with minimal resource inputs, and “effective” means having an impact on something (hopefully a desired one). Let's stop redefining real world words into educationspeak, because doing so will lead to false proclamations of results, successes, and failures.

I could go on, but I think I've established the fundamental disconnect between the ideas in this book and real success. I suspect that if I finish this book, I will have a map showing how today's vaunted education system is continuing to fail our children.

I had always heard that this book was useful & was like the educator's bible, but when it arrived I wasn't sure if I would agree (it looks like an outdated book!). After reading the required chapters for class, I realized how true it was that this book was an educator's goldmine to pertinent information to make the first day of school go smoothly. I highly encourage young teachers to purchase this book & read it, & keep it in your library for years to come! There is so much useful information in here that I doubt many people would disagree with Wong's ideas!

The book features rule after rule that a teacher is supposed to follow during the first days of teaching. I don't see how a veteran teacher could remember half of these rules, and as a beginning teacher, I am overwhelmed by the immense rules that are listed in each chapter. There has to be a better way to be an effective teacher.

I agree with the other reviewers who wondered what all of the hype over this book is about. I thought that I had to have this book because other people have said that it is a great book for first year teachers. I was mistaken. It came with a DVD, which I thought would be great. The DVD was a recording of a conference that a secondary teacher gave about the First Days of School. My DVD started skipping about half way through, and then completely stopped working. I'm not too concerned about it because I don't think I'm missing much from not viewing the whole DVD. I didn't really learn anything new from this DVD or book that I didn't learn from basic Classroom Management coursework in school. I really enjoyed The First Year Teacher's Survival Guide and Working with Students.