First Days 2015-2016

Yesterday was my first day back with students. First hour I had to go over the student handbook and pass out forms and schedules and etc. Then I had second hour through fifth hour, lunch, and then sixth hour for 15 minutes and an early dismissal.

Hate! I want to have all my classes on the first day. So dumb to not see all of them because whatever you do, you have to repeat or be behind. I literally did not decide what to do until like 1:00 in the morning. Thanks Laurie!

I used her survival game idea but I want you to just read her post. Let's just say it starts with the pilot episode of Lost which is one of my favorites-  how could it go wrong? Oh maybe if your Internet on your SMART board computer decides to stop existing! I adapted by having students just crowd around my laptop and watch. lol

Today we started setting up our binders- Washi tape on the spine, colored cardstock hole punched, and sticky tabs labeled with Bell Ringers, Handouts, Quizzes, Tests. I sell composition notebooks to my students because most of them won't get them otherwise.

I print out my Remind number and code onto mailing labels for each class and passed those out.

I'm trying a new idea this year with my dry erase markers. Last year I kept them in the drawers of a cart but people ended up destroying them. This year I gave each person their own marker to keep in their folder. I'm hoping they will last until Christmas at least!

Then we tried Kahoot! for the first time. I used the survey option and started out asking them how they feel about math and learning and such and then transitioned into procedural questions. I put in funny answer choices and we had a lot of laughter. It worked well with incoming freshman all the way to my seniors. Here is the link if you're interested.

Then I did a short powerpoint. Here's the subtitles:

• How to not Suck
• How to be Awesome
• Why I'm Awesome

That transitioned into this handout where they tell me "How to not Suck" as a teacher and "Why I'm Awesome" about themselves.

I really had so much fun today with my students and I highly attribute it to Glenn Waddell's high-fives. I high-fived EVERY student yesterday and today. Almost all of them immediately smile; it's like an automatic side effect. I DON'T KNOW WHY IT'S SO FUN BUT IT IS.

It makes me feel awesome inside and it forces me to make contact with each individual student. For some, it might be the only physical contact they have. If I miss kids at the door, I just walk in and high-five them. My freshman boys think it's funny to try to get past me without doing it but I just block the door until they surrender. It's all in the hips!

I kinda doubt you can use any of this stuff for yourself but maybe it will spark something fun for you to do. I had a great day and I hope you did too!