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Teachers gear up with decorations, lessons Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell Connie Vandenbergh prepares for the new school year at Medford's Washington Elementary School where she will welcome sixth-graders Tuesday morning. By JONEL ALECCIA Even after 19 years in the classroom, Connie Vandenbergh still gets butterflies before the first day of school. "Every veteran teacher does," says Vandenbergh, who is preparing to welcome 34 sixth-graders Tuesday to Medford's Washington Elementary School. "I sit and I think, 'How will I bond with these students this year?' Yeah, you fret." Across Jackson County, as more than 30,000 public schoolchildren gear up for the new academic year, some 1,700 teachers like Vandenbergh, 47, are doing the same. While the kids prepare for class with new clothes, new notebooks and sharp pencils, their instructors are conducting a few back-to-school rituals of their own. For some teachers, it's bright bulletin boards and elaborately decorated classrooms that ease them into the new year. For others, it's rock-solid lesson plans that stretch into October and beyond. For still others, it's a run-through of opening-day lessons - even jokes. "I really practice at least the beginning of what I'm going to say to the kids," says Adrienne Hillman, 30, a North Medford High School language arts teacher. "I try to memorize their names according to their pictures on the computer desktop and I always practice the jokes. I think, 'What can I say to make them laugh?'" Personal anecdotes are always a hit, says Hillman. "Returning students will say, 'Oh, you've got to hear about the time she set her husband on fire!'" she says. Other teachers use family pictures, artwork and decorations to help students connect. "It lets them know you are a person, too," says Vandenbergh, a University of Oregon graduate whose classroom includes a shrine to the Ducks. "The kids do the Pledge of Allegiance and then we stand for the Oregon fight song," she jokes. Whatever the rituals, the teachers who adopt - and adapt - them are among the best, says Kathy McCollum, staff development director for the Medford School District. "I think it's incredibly important," says McCollum. "It's essential to making an inviting atmosphere for the kids. It shows them they're not just there for an attendance requirement but they're there as a human being." That's an assertion well-supported by education gurus such as Harry and Rosemary Wong, California teachers who have gained fame inspiring colleagues across the country. Teachers' rituals - ranging from a handshake at the classroom door to a welcome note on the chalkboard - offer structure, security and respect from the very first day, the Wongs contend. "The first day of school is the most important day of the school year," Harry Wong writes in an online column at www.teachers.net. "There is only one first day of school and what you do can determine your success or failure for the entire year." Do teachers feel that pressure? You bet, says Teresa Westmoreland, 40, a Talent Middle School teacher with 11 years' experience. Her nerves are better now than they were on her first day in the classroom, when she had to stop and buy Pepto-Bismol on the way to work. "Now it's more of an excitement," she says. "But once you walk into the building on the first day of school, it's like walking onto one of those moving sidewalks and you don't get off until June." Summer break helps prepare her for the intensity of students, parents and the learning process, says Westmoreland, who makes sure every detail of her classroom and lessons is perfect by the end of in-service week. Even so, she always makes sure to get one last day of rest. "On Labor Day Monday, I stay home in my pj's all day," says Westmoreland, a mother of three kids ages 9, 15 and 17. "I make sure I do absolutely nothing. I watch old movies, I read - and not schoolwork, either. I eat comfort food like homemade pizza and cookie dough." By showtime on Tuesday morning, Mrs. Westmoreland is ready to face her middle-school charges. Other teachers have different ways of preparing. Hillman says it's all she can do to stay away from school until August because she misses her students so much. By the last two weeks of summer break, her nights are interrupted with visions of classroom horror. "The dream is that I'm not prepared and the kids show up and I don't have anything ready," she says with a shudder. By the first day of school, she makes sure to have lessons complete and a welcoming letter to students written. "I usually write it on the weekend before school and I tell them it's sunny out, but I'm in my classroom because I'm so excited to meet you," says Hillman. "It lets the kids know we're going to get a lot of work done and I love what I do and I want you to love what we do here, too." Reach reporter JoNel Aleccia at 776-4465, or e-mail [email protected] Answer these Education experts Harry and Rosemary Wong contend there are seven things that students want to know on the first day of school. The best teachers will make sure these questions are answered with grace and ease: - Am I in the right room? - Where am I supposed to sit? - What will I be doing this year? - How will I be graded? - What are the rules in the classroom? - Will the teacher treat me as a human being? - Who is the teacher as a person? Source: "The First Days of School" by Harry and Rosemary Wong Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.