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