The clock is running down quickly towards the beginning of the school year, so I am already thinking about the first day – and week – of school.
On the first day of school last year, my students found their seats (assigned), filled out a graphic organizer with illustrations explaining what they thought a spaceship looked like and how it worked, and did a get to know you activity with jolly ranchers. (Oh, I also started reviewing the school wide assertive discipline plan.)
I always start the year with assigned seats. (I actually continue this throughout the year.) At the beginning of the year, though, my main purposes for assigned seats is to help every student find their place and to help me quickly learn all of each student’s name. Since I teach over 120 students, it is so important to make the name learning process happen quickly. I find with assigned seats I can learn all of their names by the end of the first week, if not sooner.
However, I ran across this article shared by someone on Twitter over the weekend, and it has me reevaluating how I have students find their seats at the beginning of the year. Teaching Secrets: Get to Know Students Through Seating Challenges (You have to be registered to read the article, but registration is free.) Now I am wondering if having fun challenges to find a seat would be a good way to start the year. For instance, on the first day students sit in birthday order. The point of the activity is to observe how students interact with each other. There are different activities for the first five days of school. I teach gifted students, and I think activities like this would be right up their ally.
Also, our first day of school is August 6. The Curiosity rover is schedule to land on Mars in the middle of the night August 5/6, so I will hopefully spending our class time discussing this event. One of my Team Kennedy teammates will be at the JPL NASA Social, and she’s already offered to Skype in with my class. What an exciting way to start the year!
So, how to do you start the year? Do have any ideas to share?
