Day 1: Teacher Quiz and Student-Made Class Guidelines

Attendance

I started the first day by introducing myself, just by saying my name. Then I took attendance, making sure to pronounce each name correctly and to write down nicknames that my students prefer. I told them before I started going through attendance that I wanted them to correct me if I was wrong in my pronunciation because their name is important!

Teacher Quiz

After going through attendance, I gave each student a half-piece of paper and told them to number 1-10. I then went through a slideshow that had 10 questions about myself. I told students that they would earn 10 points for each correct answer, and the points would come in later. The points would not go in the grade book so there wasn't any risk attached to the quiz.

I took this opportunity to hype up gamification and the cool things that we'd be able to do in our class game. This way, students knew that the points would be awarded later in the week and they weren't pointless!

Here is an idea of some of the questions...

• How many siblings do I have?
• What is my middle name?
• What animal do I have as a pet?
• What is one of my hobbies?
• Name one place that I worked before I was a teacher.
• Name a club or extra-curricular that I was involved in when I was in high school.

They seemed pretty interested to learn a little something about me and I had a great time hearing some of their guesses to my questions. I got a glimpse of their personalities almost immediately!

Class Guidelines (Created by Students)

In our last few minutes, I told the students to turn over their half sheet of paper and write 2-3 guidelines that we should follow in our class. I told them to consider how students should act individually, how students should act toward each other, and how I, their teacher, should act.

They turned in the sheets on their way out of the door. I compiled all of the guidelines from all classes and made a poster that remains on the wall to remind students of the expectations that they came up with and I shared the list with them the next day. I told them that I did not add anything to the guidelines, which is 100% true. They came up with an excellent list and I didn't need to add anything at all.

The Guidelines are now posted on the wall and referred to often.
Students are pretty good about following them, as they know that they
had a hand in creating them.

Curious about the other activities that I did in the First Week of School?

• Day 1: Teacher Quiz and Student-Made Class Guidelines
• Day 2: Movie Marquees and Google Classroom
• Day 3: Play-Doh, Classcraft, and Student Questionnaire
• Day 4: Marshmallow Team-Building
• Day 5: Classroom Tour and Flexible Seating

First Week of School

This year I started at a new school and I made a conscious effort to show students that my main goal is to be there for them and help them to succeed. I also want my students to support each other in their endeavors.

We spent the first week focusing on creating a positive and supportive culture in the classroom before we started any content. In my experience, focusing on teamwork, collaboration, respect, and building each other up makes the rest of the school year run a lot smoother. This is certainly proving to be true this year!

First of all, I am consciously trying to stick to the following goals:

• Refer to the classroom and classes as "ours" and not "mine"
• Remind students that their voices matter in all activities
• Smile and have fun! The "don't smile until Christmas" rule is ridiculous
• Avoid the words "ice breaker"

Over the next few blog posts I will be explaining how I stuck to the above goals while sharing the activities that my class did during the first week of school, including reflections upon the overwhelmingly positive changes that it has made in my classes in only three weeks.

Here is an overview of the topics that are covered:

• Day 1: Teacher Quiz and Student-Made Class Guidelines
• Day 2: Movie Marquees and Google Classroom
• Day 3: Play-Doh, Classcraft, and Student Questionnaire
• Day 4: Marshmallow Team-Building
• Day 5: Classroom Tour and Flexible Seating

Legacies of WWI: Causes of WWI

I have received a scholarship from NHD to participate in their Legacies of WWI course, which I'm super excited about! I'm one of 114 teachers to be chosen for the program this year. Here is the press release.

So far it has been a valuable experience and I have been able to discuss content and pedagogy with the other teachers in the class.

The first module was titled "The 'Why' of WWI: The Causes of WWI."

The readings were particularly interesting to me, as I have always been taught (and I have always taught my students) that there were four MAIN causes of WWI:

• Militarism
• Alliances
• Imperialism
• Nationalism

During the webinar, which was the culminating activity in the module, I learned that these main causes are anything but actual causes.

Dr. Neiberg, the webinar presenter, discusses how Europe was, in fact, demilitarizing in the early 1900s. Alliances had existed for centuries and never led to a world-wide war before, especially considering the fact that these alliances were defensive. This means that if one nation attacked another, the attacker would not be supported by its allies. The allies would only help out in the case of a defensive war, meaning if their ally was attacked by someone else. Imperialism had been occurring but was declining. And lastly, nationalism can't be considered a reason to go to war. A person might believe that their nation is the best nation in the world, but they won't go killing other people over it for no reason.

I won't be using MAIN to teach the causes of WWI anymore! I'm not sure how I'm going to approach it yet, but Dr. Neiberg gives some great insight in this NHD webinar. It turns out that the causes of WWI were WAY more complicated than I thought...https://t.co/QMM3cQKm2v#sschat

— Carlene Baurichter (@MrsBaurichter) September 13, 2018

In general, I was very surprised. I have been teaching it in a way that is not actually widely accepted by scholars, but instead because teachers have decided that MAIN is a helpful acronym!

The biggest realization that I came to was that the spark, the assassination of the Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie, was actually not the spark that led to the Balkan powderkeg exploding at all... more like a spark that fizzled out and dissipated quickly.

No one in Europe cared much about the assassination and certainly were not prepared or motivated to go to war over it. They viewed it as just another violent episode in the history of the Balkan region. It didn't hold much significance, as this sort of thing happened more often during that time period and in that region than most modern people realize. The Archduke and his wife weren't even particularly popular or liked by their own people. I was floored when I read this, but it makes so much sense that the assassination would not actually lead to a much larger, worldwide fight.

I'm not quite sure how I'm going to approach the causes of WWI this school year and into the future, but I know that teaching the MAIN causes is not beneficial or accurate. Even Dr. Neiberg said that most teachers resort to the acronym because they don't have enough time to fully discuss the causes of WWI, so it's understandable. Fortunately for me, I have more time to devote to WWI than I have in the past so I can attempt to help students fully understand the intricate and complicated causes of WWI in a way that is more historically accurate than the MAIN explanation. I just have to do some more research before I reach that part of the school year, as I want to be fully prepared to teach my students correctly. I'll have to refer back to the webinar to get some ideas!

Dynamic Learning Plan - Progressive Era

I completed my Dynamic Learning Plan, a unit on the Progressive Era, and submitted it to Kasey Bell's (Shake Up Learning) Dynamic Learning Database.

I was one of a few teachers to win a Google Chrome Cast for participating!

I'm hoping that I'll be able to put the chrome cast to use at school soon!

I won a chrome cast from @ShakeUpLearning for creating a dynamic learning experience! Thanks Kasey! Check out my Progressive Era unit here: https://t.co/VKAX06T81r

I suggest joining Kasey’s Shake Up Learning book study, as she challenges you to make learning more dynamic! pic.twitter.com/5Miuc57SKD

— Carlene Baurichter (@MrsBaurichter) September 13, 2018

Read more about my Progressive Era Planning Document.