Well, the first week of school is finished, and except for a sinus infection (just my luck), it went great! Here’s a review of some highlights from the week:
Syllabus Poster Activity
I tweaked my syllabus “chunking” activity,
which you can read about here. Earlier this summer, I admired another teacher’s post about turning her syllabus into a newsletter and planned to do it with mine but then decided to let my students do it instead. Each group had an assigned page of my syllabus and was instructed to create a front newspaper page in a short amount of time. When each group shared its page in whole class discussion, students were able to ask questions about the information in the syllabus. It’s an engaging strategy for getting through the discussion of tedious routines, rules, and procedures.
Back to School Night
I also borrowed an idea from another teacher in the #2ndaryela Twitter and Facebook group that I follow. She posted about how she has parents leave encouraging notes for their children at Back to School Night. At first I wasn’t sure if this would be popular with the parents of high school juniors, but the members of the group encouraged me to try it. Well, it was a hit! Now I have a basket of personal letters to deliver to my students when they need a positive message before a test or when they’re having a bad day.
I’m so grateful for collaboration with teachers from around the country and world. They give me fantastic ideas to keep my teaching fresh. Hopefully the rest of the school year will be filled with many more successful moments!
What were some of your best moments during your first week back to school? Share in the comments below!
