First Days Routines

Its time to greet bright, eager new faces again.

Those 20?30?40? students that we will be tasked with instructing, guiding, coaching and yes, even teaching are arriving at our doorstep. So much to think about and do, so much expected of us and soon so much to have to "show" for our work in the form of formative assessment results, subject matter exams and more.

But how can we expect to get there if we don't spend time on the most important thing that matters to a group of students who have to "start over" with someone new in a new space? That's why we take time to establish relationships with our students and build a sense of classroom community/ identity.

I'll share two activities I would ALWAYS do with my students, year in, year out, to reach this goal.

But first, an aside for the wayward secondary teacher...
(In case it hasn't been apparent in the past, I am generally referring to the teaching context of the self-contained elementary classroom and ELD teachers of elementary students. Secondary folks, I love you very much and admire you for your subject matter expertise/passion and the issues of the ages of the students you deal with. I don't have the experience of teaching students or leading schools at this level, so please let me know if I ever misrepresent your experiences. On the other hand, I think the concepts discussed here are universal and applicable at secondary, e.g. establishing community).

Activities I've done in the first days...
1. Establish classroom agreements.
- Yes, I've even done this with kindergartners. On a "T" chart, we put out what we would like to "see" happen in our classroom throughout the year (e.g. a common one is "kids helping each other) and "hear" (e.g. using positive language). Eventually a trend emerges and these become classroom agreements I would refer to all year long. Visuals obviously increase understanding for ELLs.

2. Go on a "classroom guess the space "
- My room had spaces dedicated to certain activities. For example I had a couch and adjacent shelves with books. I would have students go to the area where they would predict we would (fill in the blank, e.g. work in a small group with the teacher= kidney table). It helps ELLs orient themselves and preview the routines they will be engaging in every day.

And, I'm sure you are already quite familiar with the classic resource by Harry and Rosemary Wong, The First Days of School: How to be an Effective Teacher. Here's a link to the amazon listing for it: http://www.amazon.com/First-Days-School-Effective-Teacher/dp/0962936022 in case you want a reminder of what the cover looks like.

Hope this is useful.

Happy first days to all!

- W