calling all teachers (or anyone else :))

allison

Hiyas,

I noticed there were many teachers here. I was thinking it could be fun to start a thread sharing ideas, stories, lessons, etc.

Others can join in too, not just teachers! Any school/teacher/child/ related story, idea, etc.

The school year is looming right in front of me. I can't seem to get motivated, ugh.

Any ideas for first week of school activities?

Any stories on first week of school disasters? Last year on the first day of school, one of our buses got into a major accident. Every one of the students was OK, but it made for a difficult first day! Hope this year starts out a little easier!

FilleBelle

What grade level do you teach?

allison

5th grade...you?

Shalva

Well I teach but probably wouldn't be much help to you as my students are significantly older

s

FilleBelle

High school English and ELD.

We always spend the first day on a getting to know you game, usually of the "Find someone who..." variety. You know, they have to find someone who was born in another country, owns a cat, likes pineapple on his or her pizza, etc. Sometimes we play The Big Wind Blows and sometimes I set my alarm for three minutes and let them ask me whatever questions they have about me and my class/classroom. They have a right to ask anything and I have a right to refrain from answering anything.

Day two is usually the in-class essay on their summer reading books. It isn't until day three or four that I talk about the class rules and expectations. By that time, they've already experienced most of them anyway, so the discussion goes much more smoothly. I tend to think it's important to have some sort of relationship with the class before telling them what they can and can't do.

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allison

I agree.. rapport is good! No matter what the age, showing and giving respect is the most important thing of any relationship!

I do the getting to know you game too. They get a type of bingo sheet and have to go around asking people to sign in. It turns out to be really fun.

Shalva what subject/grade level do you teach?

Shalva

Sociology at a University
first day reminders..... remember your roster and syllabus

ELmostl

i will someday be a teacher =D..

right now as a student..i can tell you i hate the first day meeting people thing. i thought it was normal in k-12 but why do i need to do it in college..ugh.

especially when its like pick a buddy and interview them then present them to the class.

allison

LOL good idea


Cool!

I know some of my elementary students hate it too, they're shy or whatever. Maybe with you being in college, you can just go to the bathroom during that part of it! lol

Or if you're uncomfortable with some of your answers... try to think of them before the first day so you can have some witty comebacks or whatever. Or try to sit near a friend so it's not too akward!

RubesMom

I teach university level as well, but it's english as a second language, so sometimes it feels like I'm teaching younger ones! We have to do fun things to keep it interesting. I have done the Find Someone Who thing as well, but I found that so many of the other teachers were doing it that I started doing something different. Now I like to do 3 truths and a lie... students have to write 3 true statements about themselves and one lie (I tell them not to write something that would be obvious from looking/speaking to them), they get in groups, share their statements, and the group members have to guess which statement is a lie. It's a good way to learn something interesting about people, and it gets them talking immediately. I model it first by giving them my own statements and they have to guess which is my lie, which they think is fun. I also give them examples of bad statements, such as "I am a woman, I speak English, I have brown hair." Too obvious, but some students still write crap like that.
Good ones would be:
I go horseback riding almost every day.
I have a dog who is bigger than I am.
I went skydiving this past summer.
I am an artist.

Interview someone and introduce them to the class is lame, and a lot of the other teachers do that as well.

By the way... I love the idea of this thread. Good idea, allison.

allison

I love that idea of 3 truths and a lie... I am SO doing that!!!! Thanks!

I do something similar with writing. For example, I will get students into small groups, or even whole group and one will share their writing. Everyone else will jot down 3 hearts and a wish while the person is reading. The hearts stand for something they liked about the writing and the wish is something they can improve on. It gets them engaged and of course everyone likes to hear good things about themselves! The author then gets to keep the papers that everyone wrote on so they can reference them on subsequent drafts of the writing.

ELmostl

lol allison usually idk anyone in my classes =\ ehehe..ehh i survive it..its just booriiing and a waste of time..i could just sleep in that first day =P.

I like RubesMom`s game..that seems cool =D.. btw do u teach in a University here in Stl?...for some reason i think i saw u say u were from stl..

RubesMom

Yes, currently at UMSL and Forest Park.

allison

I had a dream last night that I had to pick up my students from the playground on the first day of school, but I had never been in to set up the classroom yet! Everything was still boxed up, no lesson plans, nothing!

HORRIBLE! O_O

RubesMom

Oh, I always have horrible dreams about the first day of class -- I go to class and realize that I forgot to make copies of the syllabus, I have no plans, the students won't listen to me, etc. It's a recurring dream of mine. Not fun.

We need to keep this thread up because once classes start, I bet people will have lots more ideas to share.

Something I just thought of...
I was doing a lesson on "if" clauses; you know, "if I were a dog, I would lay around and do nothing all day" and that sort of thing. My students have trouble with the tenses of these clauses, since past tense is used to express present, and present is used to express future, and then there's the whole "If I were" instead of "If I was"-- it's confusing for them. So we did an "if" chain. One person would start off with a sentence, then the next person was to take the second part of the sentence (the independent clause) and move it to the front so that it was now the "if" clause. So, using the example above with the dog, the second person might say, "If I laid around and did nothing all day, I'd get fat". I started off by saying "If I won a million dollars, I would buy a bunch of horses." Keep in mind I've got students from all over the world in my classroom. The next student was a cute girl from Japan, and she said, "If I bought a bunch of horses, I would ...." She had her hand over her mouth and I couldn't hear her, and I asked her to repeat the second part. She did, and I realized she was saying something in Japanese (bashimi or something like that), and I still didn't understand because I don't speak Japanese, and finally she said, "bashimi! Horse meat! I would eat it!" Needless to say, I was shocked. I mean, I knew Japanese eat horse meat, but I just wasn't expecting her to say that. I was like, That's NOT why I bought the horses!! I didn't judge or anything, because it would be very unprofessional of me to judge people from different cultures. The next girl was also Japanese, and she said, "If I ate bashimi, I would be very happy!" UGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

allison

lol.. it's amazing the differences in cultures and therefore humor!


OK so I've been thinking about decorating my classroom and came up with the idea of using wrapping paper for some of the displays as decoration. I have never done this before, but I will tell you how it turns out. I also use fabric on my bulletin boards.

Anyone else have good ideas for this?

Mdawn

When I was in college, we had to introduce ourselves to the class. After awhile I just started saying the same thing. It was just a prepared introduction because I knew we'd have to do it. "My name is Mindy. This is my second year (or whatever) and I'm a Criminal Justice major. I don't have any kids, but I do have 2 dogs and 3 cats..." You get the idea. It was just a big waste of time because we already knew everyone else in the class as we had more than likely already taken several of the same classes together before and more than likely had already had that same instructor for previous classes.

Also, I didn't buy my books until the second day of classes because they always tell you to buy this book and that book for one class. You go to the class and find out the teacher only plans to use one of the books. It saves time in returning the books that they don't plan to use and the bookstore lines are always extremely long. We never used the book on the first day of class anyway as the class time was taken up with the introductions, going over the syllabus and what projects and papers that were required for the class.

Now I'm an Educational Aide at a school for children with developmental disabilities, specifically in a classroom with children with Autism. One first day of school is just trying to get to know the kids and their little "quirks" and for the kids to get to know us. We don't really do anything elaborate or special. There are lesson plans but we are a great deal more flexible than typical schools. How our school is set up is that there is a teacher who hand off lesson plans and activities that are to be completed that particular day to the Educational Aides who work with the children individually when ever it is the easiest for the child to do so. If the kid is having a bad day or is having a "behavior" it kind of interrupts any set routine that the teacher would develop, and nothing would ever be accomplished because more than likely at least one of the kids is having an issue at any given time. Each student usually develops a specific routine unique to them after a few days. The teacher is usually so bogged down in meetings concerning behavior plans, doing so many assessments of the kids and paper work that, sadly, they don't actually get to "teach" much.

allison

Wow, you have a really difficult job. I admire people who can work with children with special needs. Thank you for being their teacher!

LunarFlame

ohhhh how I am thankful for this thread. I am starting my BEd in less than a month, and this thread is so very helpful!

allison

That's awesome LunarFlame!!! Good luck and post your experiences! Teachers are in a constant state of learning, we love to steal ideas

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