Are we doing anything today?

How many times have you had students walk into the classroom and ask the following questions?  Are we doing anything today?  What are we doing today?  The students actually have no idea about what is going on in the class.  For years, I did not tell the students what we were doing until the class started.  I never wrote it down anywhere.  I just said it out loud.  One day it all changed.  I was at a school that did not meet its standards; therefore, we were required to do certain things.  One of them was to write the topic and objective of the day on the board.  Instantly, the students knew what they were doing and did not have to ask me anymore.  All they needed to do was read the board.  This was so an aha moment.  It was so simple and I wondered why I never thought about it before.  Since that day, I have not had any students ask what are we doing today.