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| The last day before Christmas break! |
This starts from day 1! I feel that it's important for my kids to see that I'm excited to be there. I remember a professor telling my college class, "Don't smile before Christmas!" and I was so dismayed. I'm always smiling!? How do I NOT smile? Sadly, I knew a lot of student teachers who took this to heart. But fear and intimidation is not the way to get your kids to want to be in a room for 7 hours a day with you.
In Dave Burgess' book, Teach Like a Pirate, he talks about building rapport with
your students. For me, this starts as soon as they walk in the door. I'm standing at my door welcoming every student into the classroom. If I met them at open house, I welcome them by name. If I didn't, I ask them their name, introduce myself, and have them find a seat anywhere they like. I tell them not to unpack, but to just take a seat. I have an activity and all supplies ready on their desk. I have music playing from my SmartBoard and I ask the first student that walks in to help show everyone what to do.
By the time the the first bell rings, I begin circulating around the room. I take a look at what they've drawn or written for me (this year I'm going to try the neat play dough activity I read about!).
After we've finished with the first activity I move on to a read aloud. I use the book, The Three Questions by Jon J. Muth. It's based on a story by Tolstoy but makes for an amazing thought provoking lesson. The three questions are: When is the best time to do things? Who is the most important one? What is the right thing to do? I ask them to discuss what they think the answers will be. By the end of the book, students have a better understanding of my expectations for them. The present is the most important time, so always be mindful of NOW. The most important one is the person they are with, so they must treat their fellow classmates and their teacher as the most important person. The right thing to do is to do good for the one you are with. This sets the tone for how I expect them to treat one another.
Next comes procedure time! I remember giving my kids a procedure book my first year teaching...what was I thinking?! Did YOU read the instructional manual on how to work your refrigerator or washing machine thoroughly? I bet not so much. You just went to the parts that matter or just used it! So we go through our procedures when we have to do them. I do explain what to do in the event of a fire drill, tornado drill, or earthquake drill, but this only takes less than 5 minutes. Then it's on to lining up for a restroom break!! Oh yeah!
Now, my father was in the Army. He taught me a lot of his call and response chants with his own twist and my favorite one was:
I don't know but I've been told!
Dornseif's are as good as gold!
Brave and true and never scared.
In fact they'd wrestle a big brown bear!
Kids LOVE these! In fact, most elementary kids enjoy call and response. For lining up we do:
Everyone's getting in a line,
because it's almost _____ time!
Our line is straight and oh so quiet!
Hands to our selves and nice and silent!
Sound off, 1 2, Sound off 3, 4 Bring it on down, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10!
And I fill in with whatever we're about to do! Eating time, recess time, breaking time, specials time...you get the point! This gives them a predetermined amount of time to get to the line and also a quick reminder of procedures...but it's fun!
I have several other first day lessons, (G.L.U.R.P. boxes and I'm trying to figure out how to do another one Dave Burgess writes about in his book but for 3rd graders instead of high school students) but a new one for me will come at the end of the day! I'm going to start by asking my kids if they know what a blog is. Oh, yes. You know what's coming! That's right! We're going to blog! (Thanks Shauna for this great idea!) And we'll start on it day 1! I'll walk my kids through what a blog is by playing this great video! Then, I'll show them our classroom blog! We'll work together and create our first blog post. Then, I'll send the kids home with the url so they can show their parents. I may use Remind101 to text parents about the blog as well!
Just typing this out gets me excited for the first day! I already have my first day of school outfit picked out! (I even know what I'm wearing to open house!! I know...but I'm excited!!)
Do you have any great ideas for the beginning of the year? Leave a comment and let me know!
As Always,
Overly Enthusiastic Jen
