Teaching Ideas For the First Day of School

As teachers eye their empty classrooms the day before school starts where not a creature is stirring and hopefully not a mouse, teachers are filled with anticipation about what they will get for the upcoming school year. Will they get a group of students that will be easy to teach? Will they get the supplies and support they need to be effective? Will they get ideas to do their tasks as teachers better? Of all the questions teachers may ponder, three are crucial to consider for a successful year. Those three questions are as follows.

1. How can I establish positive relationships with my students?

The quicker you learn the names of your students and get a sense of their personalities the better. My favorite activity for building rapport and community in my class is to have students fill out a questionnaire about themselves on the first day of school. The questionnaire is divided into section A and section B. The questions in section A are for record keeping purposes such as the name of the student, the name of the parent or guardian, home telephone number etc. In contrast, the questions in section B are fun, get-acquainted questions such as: If you could be a part of a TV show which show would you select and why? Each student is expected to share an answer to a question from section B aloud to the class. After each student has shared, I collect the questionnaires and file them in my records.

2. How can I maintain good classroom management?

Student behavior is easiest to manage during the first few days of school. To help maintain this ease in management, students need to understand how you expect them to behave in class and the consequences for not acting appropriately. Teachers should create a practical, well thought-out classroom management tool to help them enforce the rules consistently throughout the year. This classroom management tool should achieve the following goals:

a. remind students of the class rules on a regular basis,
b. provide the teacher with a systematic way to acknowledge appropriate behavior and discourage inappropriate behavior through consequences
c. produce a visual or a document that students and/or parents can view that tracks the progress of how students are adhering to class rules

I highly recommend that teachers explain and use their classroom management tool on the first day of school to build a routine of appropriate behavior in their class.

3. What should I teach first?

Most students start the school year eager and ready to learn. But like anyone else, students want to enjoy the learning process and feel connected to what they are learning. Teachers should try to make their first few lessons or unit very engaging. Engaging students does not require that your lessons be over-the-top fun or easy. Instead, engaging lessons are thought-provoking and provide students with opportunities to express their thoughts and ideas. This can be achieved by connecting the content of your lesson to an interesting theme. For example, for my ninth grade English class, I usually start with the novel, The Pearl, by John Steinbeck. One theme that I use to capture the attention of my students is how instant wealth can change the life of a person. If students deem your class to be engaging during the first weeks of school, they will be easier to teach when you do have to conduct a dull lesson every now and then later in the year.

A successful classroom imitates that of a thriving community. As with a thriving community, a successful class is place where a person can feel free to be himself or herself without infringing on the rights of others or hampering its productivity. Teachers who give thoughtful consideration to the above questions will lay the foundation for a successful school year despite what they may get on the first day of school.

Tonia Lee is the author of Romeo & Juliet in Urban Slang and Macbeth in Urban Slang.

For a copy of the student questionnaire or classroom management tool Tonia Lee has used successfully in her class, visit http://shakespeareinslang.com and click on free teaching ideas navigation button.

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View Community Primary School early to say goodbye to her in tears * retired, redundant workers and, especially, their graduates. While the camera moves, he captures the culture of his community in their perspectives, processes and products that are proud of their graduates, celebrations of their successes and many flavors of these services. * For the 2008/09 began Paterson BOE dismiss more than 500 employees, a year before the national trend was observed. Reports to anticipatethat by June 2010 a further reduction in force (500 +) is expected.

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Preschool, Sunday School Thanksgiving Craft Ideas

Making Crafts Thanksgiving is a great way to get the preschool Sunday school class together and transmit the values that is Thanksgiving. You can choose to create beautiful color pages for display on the wall, or making pilgrims from rolls of fabric. There are tons of fun crafts available. Remember that every project you choose a preschool class of small parts or sharp objects request must contain. There are many types of crafts and thanksgiving. You can choose betweenDecorations for the wall or window, table decorations, crafts, or simply to appear anywhere in the house.

If you want to focus on decorating the table, Gedeck cards, napkin rings, place mats or even. You can choose to do a different job every week, so that students complete the setup of the big day. Some great trades last year had used the photo placemat and napkin Turkey. These items can be laminated and stored in memory or used for a fewYears. It's always fun crafts pull back years and show children what they were doing.

Another great idea is to create a way of life Pilgrim. Have the children decorate signs on paper and then cut the construction paper with the Indians or pilgrims. Hats, you can make clothing, belts, and moccasins from the cardboard of different colors for a real effect on Thanksgiving. Make an entire village on the wall for decoration, in view of children as well. Add a T-shirtpee and you have a mural of fun Thanksgiving.

Turkey are probably the most common occupations for this season. There is a paper plate turkeys, leaves, and even rolls of toilet paper. You can make the leaves on the feathers of fun animals or use colored pens can be found at local craft store. Fun craft idea is to use children's hands for a cut-out model. In this fun craft you can trace and cut the child's hand, as the body of turkey, design,eyes, and attach the feet to allow completion of Turkey.

There are lots of other fun crafts for children to have fun. Think of a crown of thanksgiving for the door. You can use use a paper plate and cover with leaves, true or false does not matter. Or you can make a nice box of fabric for the bathroom is covered with colorful images of Thanksgiving.
Searching the Internet or books crafts, and you are sure to find fun for kids of all ages. There are also buy books that list hundredsFun Sunday School Thanksgiving crafts. No matter which craft you choose, be sure to have fun and find a lot to be grateful.

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