More Back to School Ideas

Here are some great ideas to start the school year off to a good start!

1)  POW - Have all the students complete information note cards about themselves with questions like: What is your birthday? What do you have in common with others? What is unqiue about you?  What is your scar story (or tell me about a time you were hurt)? What is your least favorite food? What is your most favorite food? If you could have one superhero power, what would it be? If you could go anywhere in the world where would you like to go? Is there anything else I should know about you?

Put the note cards in a box and once a week, draw one and have a Person of the Week (POW).  Use the information on the card to narrow the class down to one person standing.  For example, ask the class "Stand up if your birthday is in the summer months of June and July" or "Keep standing if you own a dog named Fred".  Do this with the information from the card until only one person is left standing.

This just takes a few minutes and the POW student becomes the "helper" for that week.  You could also reward this student in some fashion - maybe first in the lunch line or give them a special pencil or pen.  Also, write the student a short note acknowledging something the class (or you) learned about them and how interesting they are!

2) Get to know the secretaries, custodians, cafeteria workers, bus drivers and guidance counselors (or anyone else students may not know or see on a regular basis) in your building.  Invite them to your classroom and introduce them to your students.  Explain how difficult their jobs are and what could make their job easier.  Give them a small gift to show your appreciation.  This can be done any time of the year, but would really be appropriate in the first few weeks of school.

3) Don't forget - everyone loves to laugh!  Find a few appropriate school-related cartoons to share with the students or tell a funny story to start the day/class (even better if it relates to the subject matter!).

4) Create a box for each school month.  In the box, collect everything you use for that month.  For example, April could have everything related to spring, Easter, spring break, etc. and November could have everything related to fall, Thanksgiving, elections, etc.  If you keep everything organized and add to the box as the years progress, you'll have a great resource to use and simply update every year, plus everything will be easily accessible and available.

5) Create a binder notebook for every course you teach.  In it, put you lesson plans, your resources for the course (such as worksheets, quizzes, tests, answer keys, vocabulary, etc.), samples of student work from previous years, etc.  This way, you'll never lose anything valuable for that course and you can update it as needed.  Create yourself a personal library which will become a resource for you every time you teach that particular course.

Just remember - every day is a new day.  If you have had a bad day, just think - the next day will be a new one, no matter what!

The above information was adapted from WeAreTeachers, a site devoted to the teaching profession.  The site has loads of information, ideas, grants and contests, a community where teachers can "talk" to each other, Webcasts, etc.  Check them out soon! 

Building Parental Engagement in Classroom Activities

I just experienced a webinar sponsored by District Administration and Shutterfly centered on parental engagement in classroom activities.  Two teachers, a mother, and two professionals from DA and Shutterfly gathered together virtually to talk about how parental involvement has changed.  The old idea was parent focused, then family, then school with teacher and administrator agendas driving the engagement.  The new idea is to be focused on the family as a whole, to involve hard-to-reach families, to think about family priorities, and to use community agencies and home/neighborhood settings.  We in education know parent engagement leads to better student outcomes, increased confidence in those students, and fewer disciplinary issues.  Including the whole family also improves reading skills and math proficiency in students.  An illustration was used of steep stairs with no "support" which is the old thinking and a stairway with periodic platforms and a railing which provided "support" which is the new thinking. 

The plan for success to engaging parents successfully is to first consider any barriers which must be overcome.  Following that are establishing personal relationships, establishing communication, forming a partnership between the home and the school, training anyone who needs it, and getting the support of the administration.  A question was asked - What will your school be?  Negative?  (which includes only reporting behavior problems, only reporting grades, only contacting the home when there is a problem of some kind) or Positive?  (which includes celebrating all learning, sharing news from the classroom, complimenting student strengths, listening to problems and finding solutions)  These are all items we should be considering as we think about the communication  between home and school, especially as we start a new school year.

Of course, one of the intents of the webinar was to introduce Classroom Share Sites to the audience.  This is a completely free space offered to schools, churches, scouting groups, clubs, etc. - pretty much anything which involves children in some way.  There are lots of great features to this site, but perhaps the most interesting to me was the fact it can be password protected.  Teachers who set up a classroom site or club sponsors who set up a club site can input certain members on the site and give them appropriate access.  This ensures student and family privacy.  Parents and guardians can become a member of the site and have access to all information, but you can also allow or block permission to save photos or documents.  Some ideas from the audience including teachers establishing a site for their grade level or department which would provide a way to share information and documents. 

I hope to explore this resource further in the near future and will be glad to share with anyone interested.  Of course, our district has individual teacher Website capability through School Loop, but this might be a way to enhance those sites.  It would be very easy to establish a Classroom Share Site and link to it from a School Loop page.  Then you could take advantage of everything each company has to offer. 

More and more people are getting online for information and our schools should establish a positive presence on the Internet.  Caldwell County Schools began this process last year with School Loop and we hope to continue our efforts this year.  

Getting parents involved . . . and the classrooms of today

Every now and then, District Administration, a digital magazine I read each month, sponsors webinars about different subjects.  On Tuesday, August 9th I'm attending a webinar entitled "Building parental engagement in classroom activities".  The leaders of the webinar note "strong parental engagement with their children's classroom experience is highly correlated with successful learning outcomes, especially in earlier grades."  The sponsor of the webinar, Shutterfly, is going to share information about their classroom Websites and how such sites can increase parental involvement.  I believe the use of classroom sites can help give timely information to parents and guardians and provide a way to support students in their academic career.  After tomorrow's webinar, look for another entry in this blog to share what I learned.

Now, for another piece of information I found interesting.  This morning (Monday, August 8th) in the New York Times opinion portion of the e-mail newsletter I receive every day, Virginia Heffernan states "full 65 percent of today's grade-school kids may end up doing work that hasn't been invented yet."  Heffernan goes on to say we continue to ask if the Internet is bad for our children, but the better question is whether the form of learning we are instilling in our children is useful to their future.  Very simply, we cannot keep preparing students for a world which doesn't exist.  Heffernan says "the contemporary American classroom, with its grades and deference to the clock, is an inheritance from the late 19th century."  Quoting a book by Cathy N. Davidson, Now You See It, Heffernan notes year after year, teachers and professors ask students to write papers and they are appalled when they turn out terrible.  However, those same students can write very intelligent blog entries and exhibit fewer typos and factual errors. 

According to Davidson, "a classroom suited to today's students should deemphasize solitary piecework."  It should facilitate collaboration instead and have new ways of measuring progress.  "The new classroom should teach the huge array of complex skills that come under the heading of digital literacy."  If you are interested in the entire article, click this link.  There you can read all of what Heffernan says, plus read many of the interesting comments which have been posted.

Don't forget - Opening Day will be August 22nd and the First Day for Students will be August 23rd.  Have a wonderful week!