The Importance of the First Day Impression
The tone for the entire course gets set from the first impression an instructor makes in the classroom. If the levels of professionalism, concern for the students, passion for the material, and a comfortable learning environment aren't obvious to the students, then it will take considerable effort to establish or re-build those later.
Yes I agree with this statement, however I have no idea what to do if after the first day you never got the chance to leave that great impression as you hoped to - only thing I can think of doing is trying again the next time.
Caroline
I believe this gets even more important as a student progresses through a degree program. The classes will get progressively more difficult, and the students must know how the more advanced classes will differ than the intro courses.
I am preparing for this one myself, as we move from classroom training into a professional environment - one, in fact, not owned by the school, but is being leased from an outside company. In this instance, the codes of conduct are going to be much more strict than those in the classrooms. This tone will need to be set on the very first day so they are aware of the more severe implications of not following the rules.
