Pre-semester email to your students

[Mark Stellmack]

An easy way to get off to a good start with your students is to send them a pre-semester email.  A week or two before the first day of the semester, send all of your students an email message introducing them to you and your course.  Tell them a little about yourself, the course, the textbook, whatever.  Just write a paragraph or two; don't detail the entire syllabus.  When I send a pre-semester email, students often reply with questions about the class or simply to introduce themselves and say that they are looking forward to the class.  Presumably, they would not have done these things if I had not initiated contact with them.  It just helps break the ice and gets things going in the right direction.  (I must acknowledge Professor Yasmine Kalkstein, a former U of M grad student currently at Mount Saint Mary College, for encouraging me to try pre-semester emails.)