Starting the year off on the right foot

Every year I kick off the school year like a sprint! Getting up extra early, staying extra late, making sure the year is off to the best possible start. Eventually I have to slow down… but that September burst is so exciting! Every year I plan to do more team building and bonding activities, but it never seems to go as planned. Each year I get nervous about time (how fresh the rush of June is in all our minds) and jump into curriculum. This year I will not do that. I will allow time for students to get to know each other, get to know me and get acquainted with the flow of the class as a group.

I truly believe that we treat people differently when we know their story. My emotions changed drastically as I watched this video. Attitudes and patience for others change when we know each other’s narratives. As much as possible, I want everyone to get to know each other so that we can be a little more patient and kind.

My plan to facilitate this:

1. I am at a new school this year so I am excited for the kids to get to know me 🙂 (I can’t just rely on reputation as I normally do). I am going to make a video of myself at home and show it to the kids so they know who I am and who is in my family. Depending on technology that is available, I would love the kids to do the same and share about themselves through video.

2. The first 10 minutes are crucial to setting the tone and getting the school year started off right. I am going to try the technique mentioned in this blog post. She suggests getting students to come in right away, leave backpacks on the hook, and start an activity. She leaves a simple activity and a pencil on each desk so that students can start to get to know each other  and be successful at a task. That way she can quickly get around to each student and start a relationship. After the activity is finished, they can unpack their backpacks and talk about procedures and teacher quirks

3. I want to create a classroom quilt (hopefully somehow connected with dot day) that can hang up in the classroom as a reminder we are all a part of a bigger group. Each student will create a square about themselves and then the squares will be fastened together to form a quilt. I love having things in my class that are student created, rather than a really nice bulletin board set from a fancy teacher store. 🙂

4. I want to do several team building activities. For example, students will need to build a cup tower using a rubber band with 4 strings attached to it. They must equally stretch the rubber band to go around the cup, without touching the cup,  in order to build the stack. We may also create towers out of spaghetti and marshmallows in groups, since we will be talking about building things in science.

5. It would be cool if students could create their own digital time capsule to be opened on the last day of school. I still have to figure out what platform I am going to use, this could be on their blog. The time capsule could include their height, shoe size and favourite  things. Then they could open the capsule on the last day of school and see how they have changed.

6. Create an “about me” post or page on their blogs and allow students to comment on each other’s blogs and find someone who has something in common with themselves.

7. I want to start each day with a class meeting. When I worked at a Catholic school, we started every morning giving intentions for others. I would like to start the day off with giving students an opportunity to share ( in a secular way 🙂 ).

Do you have any other ideas? How do you start your school year? How do you start to build relationships in your class?