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