GET TO WORK ON THE FIRST DAY.

Inside Higher Ed's Courtney Hook offers "5 Ways to Spice Up Syllabus Day."  I'm slightly heartened to discover less talk about "syllabus week."  Why?  "[Students who welcome a first class with no pressure] are often the same students who cry, 'Yay, snow day! when classes are canceled for any reason. Don’t let slackers rule your classroom."  Years ago, we endorsed doing something subject-relevant first, even before getting into the administrative stuff.

Doctor Hook's medicine show might play well at Pepperdine.  Her specific suggestions don't really get to the core of the matter, which is day one of a college course is day one of a college course.

That noted, her message, once you get past all the touchy-feely suggestions, is about getting to work on the first day.

Students still need to understand what they will learn, how their work will be assessed and what responsibilities they are accepting. But those expectations do not require a 60-minute dramatic reading of the late-work policy.

Syllabus day is our first opportunity to model the habits we want students to develop: participating, asking questions, listening, seeking help and contributing to the classroom environment. A lecture-based class should not pretend it will become an open-ended seminar, and a tightly sequenced course should not imply that every deadline is flexible. The goal is not to perform someone else’s version of an engaging professor. It is to communicate clearly what kind of classroom students are entering and give them meaningful ways to participate in it.

Students may not remember every policy. But they will begin deciding whether this is a class in which they can speak, ask for help and trust that showing up is worthwhile.

Sometimes, the best way to encourage showing up is to get to work on the first day.