Teaching - first days of school

My Days of Teaching

Yahoo! You’ve graduated. You’ve interviewed. You’ve been hired. Now what?

The first thing you need to do is send out your letter of appreciation to your supervisors and those who were on the interviewing panel. You next need to introduce yourself to the parents of your future students. What do you put in your letter?

Name, education – institution of education, experience (student teaching counts as experience), special awards, areas of interest, where you are from, which room you will be in and how you will teach the curriculum.

Dear Parents,

My name is Ms. K. I wanted to introduce myself to you. I will be your child’s third grade teacher next year. I grew up in West Des Moines, Iowa and I attended Purdue University. I have a minor in special education. I earned honors in my area of study.

I have experience as a second grade teacher and as a fourth grade teacher. I have volunteered in pre-k settings. I have been a Boys and Girls club board member for over ten years. I have worked in a youth center as a counselor for over 4 years. As you can see, my focus has been children for many years.

I enjoy teaching all areas of education. I am anticipating an exciting school year with your children in room 34 at ABC Elementary School. We will be learning about China, Australia and Brazil. There are a number of field trips planned this year that will offer your child interesting and motivating learning opportunities. I have many hands-on science and math lessons planned for the school year. I enjoy teaching reading and writing and creating projects that make the curriculum relevant to children and their lives. I enjoy children working in cooperative learning groups where they are able to learn from not only the teacher but one another as well. I would enjoy having the parents share their special talents and gifts and watching the children learn from you as well. Please contact me to set up a time when you could come in and read or share a project with our class.

Please know that first and foremost your children will be in a nurturing and happy environment this school year. I have an open door policy and look forward to meeting you and spending a great year with your child.

Sincerely,

Ms. K.

Send out a list of materials you would like students to have for the school year with your letter. Be clear to include what you want and what you do not want. Parents do not know unless you tell them.

24 Pencils, flat zipper style pencil case, 24 colored pencils, pink pearl eraser, mechanical pencil sharpener, 2 folders of every color with pockets and clips, 2 permanent black markers, highlighters, stick on notes, scissors, 2 glue sticks, 1 bottle of Elmer’s school glue, 2 packs of wide ruled lined paper, 1 pack of printing paper , 2 composition notebooks, 2 old socks, 5 dry erase markers, 2 boxes of tissues, boys 1 pack of large zip lock style bags, girls 1 pack of small style zip lock style bags

Please no backpacks with wheels or pencil boxes due to limited classroom space. Please label EACH item, as your child is more likely to have lost items returned if their name is on the item.

Now you need to set up your classroom. The first thing you need to ensure is the makeup of your class. You need to research if you have any special needs for priority seating. This does not necessarily mean that the children must have the front row seats. You need to be aware of allergies, hearing issues, attention disorders or any other learning challenges that students may have.

You need to determine your style of teaching. You need to decide if rows are more effective or groups. If you are setting your class up in cooperative learning groups then you need to cluster the desks. I will share with you something that took me months to realize as there is so much that one does not learn in college. I set my student up in groups of four, where they were also in rows. Just think of the desks as groups of four lined up with another group of four behind it. I assigned a letter to each seat in the same order in each group. I gave each group a number. The students had to learn to listen to whether I was calling group 1,2,3,4,5, or 6; they had to listen to whether I was calling all A’s to perform a task; they had to listen whether they were being called in rows. Make this something you practice well in the first few days of school.

Now, you ask, what is next? The next thing you need to focus on is the layout of your room aside from the desks. Do not set areas up where children can go and you cannot see them your first year of teaching. You need to be able to keep an eye on your students at all times. You will need a space that you can call small groups to. I create several such spaces. I have an area where all of my students can gather for a lesson or a read aloud. I call this the carpet area. I also have a table set up where I can work with small groups. I especially love my kidney shaped table for this purpose. I keep this table center and close to my students who are working at their desks. I instruct my students that they are not to interrupt small group sessions unless it is an emergency and we talk about what emergencies are.

I choose not to set up too many bulletin boards as I find that displays are more relevant to students if they are put up as I teach a lesson.

My rule display is created after the children and I create the rules together. I find that students are more invested in following rules that they helped to set up. In one of the first few days of school, together as a class, we brainstorm rules that we think will keep us all safe. The children are great about coming up with ideas. Next we work on clustering the rules together. I type these up and create a contract for everyone to sign agreeing to the rules. I create a colorful poster to hang on the wall as a reminder of our rules.

I created a permanent graph on the wall called the student birthday chart. Each year on the first day of school I place a cut out of a cup cake on the student’s desk. I have a model cupcake on the board under the procedures of the first day. It is decorated attractively with markers or colored pencils. It has my birthday month and day on it and my name. I have instructions for the students to do the same to their cupcake as they come in and get settled. We create an authentic graph of the students’ birthdays. I now have a colorful bulletin board for the school year that and the children have had their first math lesson. Depending on the grade level, I use this information to teach mode, median, range, minimum, maximum and mean. It is one of the best first day math lessons I have ever used. The students don’t even know they’ve had a math lesson.

I usually have one bulletin board that is a welcoming board. Welcome to grade 3. I have a theme and ensure that each student’s name is on the board. There are numerous sites that have first day bulletin board ideas.

I have a daily work bulletin board. For me, I use a white board so this can be altered if necessary. I have certain tasks for Mondays and Wednesdays, and certain tasks for Tuesdays and Fridays and a different task for Thursdays. The curriculum is full and tasks must often be divided.

I do put up things that indicate what we will be learning for the grade level that I am teaching. For instance, I am presently teaching fourth grade in New York State. Maps, New York State, Colonial Times, American Revolution, Matter, Properties, Electricity, etc. are all a part of the year’s curriculum. I create a neat collage of all that we will be learning throughout the school year. The children like knowing what they will be doing throughout the school year.

What colors should I use? Some teachers like to use a multitude of colors. However, research shows that children learn best in an environment limited mainly to no more than two colors. Green is shown to be especially conducive to learning effectively.

Name tags on the desk. I have found that placing students in boy, girl, boy, girl order is best for behavior management for young children. There were years when I allowed students to choose their own seating but I found that young children do best when this is set for them. Parents will interject if they notice any issues.

Set up times to teach subjects if your school has not already done this for you. Decide on which subjects you will teach first and why. I will share my schedule and why I teach in this order. I teach reading first. I think that children enjoy reading. It is a quiet time mostly in the morning and I find it works best for me. Next I teach math for an hour. I want to teach math when children are feeling fresh and alert. I have the children stand up and stretch first. I have a read aloud for twenty minutes. We then have a half an hour for lunch. When we return I teach writing for 45 minutes. Next I teach either social studies or science for 45 minutes to an hour. I save about 15 to 20 minutes per day to sign agendas, pack up for the end of the day for home and DEAR time, drop everything and read time. I have recently implemented free choice – good choice time on certain days if earned during the day. My children then go to specials for 40 minutes. I then dismiss them for the day. Young children like and need routine. We do talk about flexibility at the beginning of the year. I explain that while the routine will be fairly consistent, there will be days when things must be altered for one reason or another. The key is to prepare children for those changes.

Prepare activities for students to work on when they first arrive on their first day of school. I ensure that materials such as pencils, markers, paper, etc. are available. I do not count on students bringing their supplies on the first day. I have been fortunate to work in school districts with amazing parent support, but there are always students with economical challenges.

I create a first day procedure chart (depending on the grade level much of this must be repeated verbally and modeled). Ensure that you have the cupcake cut outs on each desk, a folder on each desk with the child’s name, a word search or the like

1. Place ALL of your belongings in your lockers/cubbies etc.

2. Find your seat and begin coloring your cupcakes as I have done on the board

3. Complete the word search on your desk

4. Complete the All about me form on your desk

5. Create a folder that shows me all about you (draw pictures of hockey, dancers, video games or anything else that you like to do) – this helps me to learn about the child on the first day

My first days of lesson plans

1. I take attendance orally. This helps me to learn the children’s names.

2. We go over school procedures: bus safety, playground safety, cafeteria rules, walking in the halls, etc. (make a list ahead of time – this is often provided by your principal)

3. I tell students to take out a piece of paper and number it from one to twenty. I tell them that they are about to take the hardest test of the year. This usually gets their attention and draws some concern. I had a student respectfully raise his had this past year and ask, “Mrs. K., if this is the hardest test of the year, wouldn’t it be best to wait until the end of the year?”

I nixed his idea and proceeded. I show the children how to put a proper heading on their paper. I then put up my poster example of how to make a proper heading. I begin with the first question: What did my father do for a living before he retired? It is fun to see the children look around the room at one another. Question 2: What was Mrs. K’s favorite book as a child? Question 3: What did my mother do for a living as a child before she retired? Question 4: How many children does Mrs. K have? Now the children have caught on and they are having fun guessing. I then go over the answers. The children love seeing how many questions they guessed correctly. I end with the question: What does Mrs. K think is more important those academics? The answer is kindness to all. That sets the tone for my expectations of our class. I collect the tests. I also tell the children that I will give them the “teacher test” at the end of the year to compare how many more questions they get right when they have spent a year with me.

4. I have a get acquainted activity prepared for students. Here are just a few links. There are many more.

Glyphs are fun http://www.abcteach.com/free/g/glyph_elem_shoe.pdf ; http://www.kimskorner4teachertalk.com/classmanagement/icebreakers.html

5. Setting up lockers and desks. I have a lot of zip locking types of bags and student labels printed up ahead of time. I am fortunate to have desks. I have students bring in two of the same colors of folders for every color that is feasible to get. We make two piles of every color. I have coordinated the colors to the colors used in middle school to make for an easier transition for my students the following year. One pile of folders goes in their lockers to be used as replacement folders in January. We label each of the folders with the subject and our names. I provide permanent markers for this task. I have students take out pencils. I pass out zip lock type bags and students place a label on it. The students take out 3 pencils and place them in their pencil case. All others go in the zip lock bag. Student then place 2 dry erase markers in their pencil case and all others go into the zip lock style bags. We do this for each item until all materials are separated out. The things we do not need go into the lockers and the pencil case now neatly fits into their desk.

6. I have students place folders on the bottom on the left. I have composition books on the left on top of the folders. Books on the right etc. It does not matter where you designate these materials. It matters that you are teaching organization.

7. Have a read aloud prepared. Children of any age love when the teacher reads aloud to them. I remember my reading professor reading aloud and I loved every minute of it.

8. Take students on a walk around the school building. Even if they have been in the building before, this is a good thing to do. It gives them a sense of belonging and familiarity.

9. I pass out books and materials. Students put their names in books or names on books as the case warrants. I allow the children time to look at each book as I pass them out. They are curious and should be able to have a few moments to explore.

10. We go over our rules as explained above and create a class list of expectations.

11. On the second or third day, I begin assessments to get a handle on students and their abilities. Skills are lost over the summer break and I need to know where my students are in general. I also use this to show growth over time. Use the folders that the students decorated as their student portfolio folders. Parents love to see their children’s drawings during parent teacher conferences. It is a great ice-breaker on these days.

This list can be altered to fit the grade level you are teaching. There are many variations to implement. Hopefully these ideas will help ease those first day jitters. Happy teaching!

See my posting on a teacher preparation checklist