encouragement

Home

Chat

Blogs

Collection

Directory

Home : 2001 : August : 5

encouragement
By KRT

Ashley,
I totally understand your anxiety. The first day/week is always the hardest and most scary, for every teacher! I agree with others, the internet has so many wonderful sites. I just visited #####.com and got
lots of cool ideas for organizing my classroom. I keep a whole computer file of internet sites and visit them often throughout the year.
As far as the first day, here's what I usually do....
8:15 Students arrive. I greet them at the door, give them a nametag. Their names are on their desks so they know where to sit. I have a wordsearch at their desk for them to work on. Go to

puzzlemaker.com and you can make your own! I usually include all the names of the students, my name, principal's name, and other back to school words. Another great activity is a Room Survey - they have to look around the room and answer questions such as How many desks are there? Where is the pencil sharpener? etc. Maybe these activities are too advanced for your grade level? If so, find a fun activity for their grade level that they can work on quietly.
8:30 Start the normal daily routines so that they understand what is expected every day: Lunch count, attendance, class jobs, etc. Walk them through each one so that they'll know what to do on their own!
8:45 Play an icebreaker game, so that they feel more comfortable with you and each other. Play something that helps them practice each others' names. There are lots of games on the internet!
9:00 I always do an exercise in which we make up rules for the classroom. Let them brainstorm ideas while you write them on the board. Then condense the list into something you all agree on, and later make a nice poster and hang it up in the room. They take ownership in the rules b/c they helped create them!
9:30-11:30 At our school we have Language in the morning, so I just go right into Language class. I have plenty of activities planned for Writing, Spelling, Grammar, Reading, etc. I like to begin Language class with a Read-Aloud. Choose a book that you LOVE and then you will enjoy reading it out loud, and they will love hearing it! This usually lasts about 15-20 min. I then hand out any supplies and explain their uses. I also have "Workshops" in my room -- this is what they do when they finish their seatwork. So I go over those and the procedures for using them, and explain my rewards system. By this time it's usually about 10 or 10:15. If I do a grammar lesson, I start with nouns and do a short lesson and then an activity. One year, I made a T-shirt for each kid out of construction paper. They had to draw a picture of something they did over summer vacation on the T-shirt, and then write a sentence underneath that included at least one noun, which they had to underline. This was fun, and I made a really cute bulletin board with a clothesline, and hung the T-shirts on it with clothespins. During Language class I also like to have them write a paragraph of some sort so that I can assess their handwriting and writing skills. Oh, another fun thing to do on the first day is to give them a "quiz" about their teacher. Ask them questions about yourself and give them multiple choice answers. it's fun to see who "knows" the teacher the best!
11:30-1 We have lunch and Specials
1-3 We have Science and Social Studies. Start your first lessons in these subjects! Just plunge right in!

Hope this helps! You will do great! You've had the training, and your natural teacher instincts will come through once you're in front of your little darlings! Good luck, and let us know how it goes!