7 First Day of School Activities Students Love The first day of school will be here before you know it. Most teachers face the big day with enthusiasm, but they dread the inevitable challenge: what to do on the first day of school. Every teacher’s approach is different. Goal: Getting to Know Your Students How well will your incoming students know you? If you’re teaching kindergarteners (or high school freshmen, who often seem like kindergarteners), you may need to spend the first day – or the first several days –getting everyone comfortable. Teaching strategies for improving friendship skills at the elementary school... The School of Education at Gardner-Webb University has received national... We examine the classroom management characteristics of effective teachers. A few useful classroom management ways to get information from your students on... 7 great technology in the classroom apps to use this year. Plan a Scavenger Hunt Assess Learning Styles or Multiple Intelligences Do a Self-Portrait Create a Time Capsule Get Them Guessing
portal How To Handle Misbehavior The First Two Weeks Of School Your new students will likely be on their best behavior for the first few days of school. But by the second week, you and your classroom management plan will be tested. After all, your students don’t really know you. Maybe you’ll be like the pushover teacher they had last year. Maybe some of your students have never had firm boundaries. And because you haven’t spent enough time with your students to earn their confidence, you’re going to be tested. But when it happens, when Anthony says something crude to try to shock you, when Karla talks back and disrespects you, when your students interrupt you, ignore you, and misbehave three feet in front of you… You’ll be ready. Here’s what to do: Pause. Your first reaction to misbehavior should be no reaction. Hide your disappointment. Never show hurt over misbehavior or disrespect. Lose the battle. If a student is directing his (or her) misbehavior toward you, disrespects you, or talks back to you, be willing to take it. Follow through. Build rapport.
info cards Handling Difficult Students The First Week Of School Hoping to head misbehavior off before it starts, most teachers try to be proactive with difficult students. Even before the bell rings on the first day of school, they peruse their new roster looking for those few whose reputation precedes them. They chat up previous teachers. They scrutinize student files. And so when Anthony or Karla or whoever shows up for the first day of school, they can feel the bull’s-eye on their back. They can feel labeled right out of the gate. And when students feel labeled, they’re pulled inexorably in its direction—fulfilling the prophecy it foretells. To ensure this doesn’t happen on your watch, and to get your reputed difficult students headed in the right direction, it’s best to make them feel like just another member of your classroom. Here’s how: 1. When a student with a difficult reputation walks in on the first day and is asked to sit closest to the teacher, she knows the score. 2. Kids are smarter than most adults give them credit for. 3. 4. 5.
humor Classroom Icebreakers - Icebreakers, Icebreaker Ideas, Games, Activities! These classroom icebreakers are enjoyable teacher-approved activities and games that address all your school and classroom needs! We recommend the following icebreakers for students of all ages. We have teachers on our staff of writers and they have recommended these for class teaching purposes. Give them a try and we think you’ll agree that your students will love them. Classroom Icebreakers for Students Breaking the Ice / Introduction Games Breaking the ice is useful for the beginning of a class period or toward the beginning of a semester when students don’t know each other well! Art Effects (Drawing) – A fun drawing oriented game! Sharing/Opinion Games Some games help students to start expressing their opinions on various issues, to share personal stories, or to have a voice in the classroom. Connecting Stories (Get-to-know-you, Teambuilding)Extremes: Where Do You Stand? Spelling/Word Games These games are all about spelling or using words. Assignments / Outside-of-Class Activities
to smile poem 10 Fun Back-to-School Activities and Icebreakers As an extremely shy student, the beginning of a school year filled me with angst. My heart raced before the first bell ever rang. I’d wonder if the teacher would be as nice, or as mean, as I’d heard. Fourth grade was the absolute best start I’d ever had to elementary school. I tell you the story above because I truly believe our own childhood experiences help shape the teachers we become. Who’s in Our Room Word Search Arrival on the very first day of school is different than any other day of the year. D-icebreakers Divide students into groups of 4–6 students and give each group one die and a copy of the D-icebreakers printable. Skit-tell Us About Yourself With students seated in a circle, I pass around a bag of Skittles, telling each student to pick two. Going around the circle, students share information about themselves based on the color candy they have selected. Autograph Scavenger Hunt Beach Ball Introductions Students sit in a circle and toss a ball to a classmate in the circle.
Works and Days » So Why Read Anymore? Is Reading Good Books Over? There is great “truth and beauty” in Homer’s Iliad, but I would not try to make his sale on such platitudes. Gibbon’s The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire remains a classic. But I confess it can be hard to get through. Conrad’s Victory or Knut Hamsun’s Growth of the Soil, if authored by writer X this year, would be trashed on Amazon. So what are the reasons, in this age of the iPhone, Xbox, and PlayStation — or Fox News blondes and HBO — to sit down and read old stuff for an hour or two each week? Here are a few reasons other than the usual defense of the “classics,” the “canon,” and the glories of “Western civilization.” Mental Exercise The mind is a muscle. By nature, our ways of expression and even thinking always fossilize and are withering away with age and monotony — a process accelerated by the modern electronic age and the neglect of replenishment through reading. A Master of Words But We Are So Much More to the Point