Five years ago, I stopped going over the class syllabus the first day or even the first week of school.  This is because I felt the syllabus gave me a start that was simply dry and boring. So, I made it a point to do something different for the rest of my career.

Here I am five years later, and I don’t miss doing it the old way, and what I do now has worked successfully for me time after time.

Why I Stopped Going Over the Class Syllabus the First Week

These were my honest reasons:

• Most teachers are already doing it in other classes.
• Because of this first reason, it won’t be as impactful for students to do it at this time or this way. So, I mention that we will be going over it in class eventually and send it home as an assignment for the learner to review with a parent or guardian requesting a signature as well.
• Starting with the syllabus is at the bottom of my list as well because it doesn’t align with what my class will really be like at all.
• We can certainly engage our learners with what is necessary to cover in the syllabus in more creative ways.

Why I Shrunk My Spanish Class Syllabus from 4 Pages to 1 Double Sided Page

Yup! I used to spend hours searching and creating extremely long syllabi. Also, I actually made my student sit through me talking about it. Ouch!  I also can’t help to think about all of the paper waste.

Somewhere, we adopted this idea that we must include every single class and behavior expectation in our syllabus but that is not the case. Now, I am not saying that expectations are not important. They are extremely important, but if we really want our learners to grasp these, we must bring these to life in their eyes!

Over the years, I learned that most of the content I was putting on my Spanish syllabus was not necessary. So, I started simplifying it, and making it user friendly.

What I Include on My Current Class Syllabus

These are the parts I decided to keep that would fit one double sided page:

• My picture
• Information about me as a teacher and person
• Contact & tutorial information
• Learning targets & performance indicators
• Grading information
• QR Codes to connect parents to further information
• Class rules
• Materials needed
• What can students expect in my class
• Quick email etiquette
• Recommended enrichment resources

That is it! It is short and sweet, and although it is short and sweet, I still avoid it for the first week and sometimes the first two weeks. By the time we get to it, my learners already know how the class rolls and everything clicks and makes more sense to them.

So, How Did I Start My Class?

I really believe that on the first day a smile and joy go a long way. I want my students to get to know me and to be 100% that their teacher really wants to be there with them.

This year, I was not feeling myself at the beginning of the school year due to severe anxiety, but I faked joy the best I could for my day, and I must say I did an excellent job at it.  I had to because I know this makes a huge difference in the environment I wish to create for the rest of the year.

1. First, I greeted my students and greeted them with a DO NOW/ BELL RINGER activity. And, I would love to skip this, but per my school I must have these activities at the beginning of class. So, I try to make all my DO NOWs interesting social emotional learning checks in the target language.
2. Then, I presented our class agenda to my learners which I always do after we go over our DO NOWs.
3. I presented my very simple class rules. I broke students into groups and I assigned each group a rule that they had to keep a secret. Each group had to come up with one 30-60 second skits exemplifying each rule and some groups had to present a skit violating each rule. Once students presented, they had to guess which rule was being presented. I did this activity in English and chimed in important details to each rule.
4. Now, learners were ready to receive input in Spanish. The first day I like to make it about me, not because I am self-centered, but because later on in the semester I will ask my learners for all types of information, so I want to present myself as a human being first and show up with transparency. This earns my learners trust before I jump into asking anything about themselves. If I want my learners to be vulnerable with me, I must take the first step. I keep this presentation super comprehensible and with TONS of visuals for all levels!
5. After I deliver my MEET THE TEACHER chat, it is time to play a fun game. And also, to provide an opportunity for a quick win with learners, so learners complete a  comprehension check via Blooket or Gimkit! This way, learners get a lot of repetitions of high frequency structures used in my presentation.
6. If there is time, I proceed to do a Write & Discuss, and we wrap it up with a choral translation.

This is the syllabus I will be using this year for both semesters. You can get a closer look here or by clicking on the image.

I also created reusable exit tickets and DO NOW activities to use throughout the semester so I don’t have to keep reinventing the wheel from time to time.

In the end…

The first day and first week for me is all about providing students with many opportunities to win big in the language. It is also about building that trust among my learners that I can guide them to the next level. And most of all, that they can believe that they have what it takes.

What do I do the next few days of week 1? The rest of the week is all about them and continuing to build that joy of coming to Spanish class!