First Day - Getting To Know You

School is starting!!!!

My first two days....  Last year I really worked on increasing student engagement inspired by our Math Cadre book "Teach Like a Pirate" by Dave Burgess.  He is pretty awesome and skyped our math cadre and chatted with us for an hour.  Thank you Dave!  He discusses his first three days of class and how building rapport creates buy-in.  I am going to take this advice and spend two whole days of building rapport.  Here is what I have in mind for Day 1:)

Day 1
I teach 6th grade and it is intimidating to come to middle school.  There are many unknowns and I like to make it easy for them to come in, find their seat and give them a warm-up so hopefully it will help with some anxiety.  

Warm-Up
Dear Me - I have the students fill out a worksheet that is all about them and their feelings on their first day of middle school.  I don't even look at it.  They fill it out, put it in an envelope, and seal it.  I return it to them the last week of school.  Most of the students completely forget about it and we have sooooooooo much fun reading it!! Dear ME

Now it's time for Building Rapport

That's Me - My instructional coach introduced this to me in Cadre.  Super simple but I definitely get the students to smile and have a little fun.  I show a slide, and if it represents the student they are supposed to do jazz hands and say "that's me".  By the end of the slide show, I have 100% participation:)  See slide show below....

More Rapport!

I attended a seminar this summer about Restorative Practices.  Our school implements circles to help build and restore relationships.  One relationship practice is the 2 minute circle.  The questions are surface level and are fun get to know you questions.  It is always ok for the student to pass.  No pressure!

Giants/Wizards/Elves

It is a take on paper/rock/scissors.  We played this game at PD with the staff and it was fun.  We were a bit reluctant at first, but by the end we were all laughing and having a great time!  I have my students sit in groups of three.  They will all play and have a winner.  However, if you lose your battle, then you have to follow your group winner and clap and cheer them on.  By the end of the game, you are down to two players and half of the class is cheering each one of them on.  I am chuckling now... it really was fun:) See slide for who beats who!

Giant - Tip-toes, raise hands above head, curl fingers, growling sounds

Wizard - Crouch slightly, wave and point a magic wand, shouting "kazaam!"

Elf - On haunches, hands cupped for big ears, shrill screeching noises

Closing (Video is linked in google slides below)
We had a wonderful PD led by our librarian and ITS.  The PD was based on #everystorymatters.  Through technology we learned different ways to give our students a voice and share their story during our content.  A few teachers from my wonderful math department created a notecard confession about math.  They shared it with me and I am going to close my day with it.

I am excited for our first day and hopefully my students will have fun and be excited for math class and whats to come!!!  Day 2 is going to be amazing!!:)