Truly, whoever said that Middle School wasn’t fun? When I was in school, I would definitely say that Middle School were some of my favorite years. I loathed High School so we just won’t go there.
Well, this past week while on Twitter, several teachers got to discussing the benefits of sharing things that we do in our classroom that help make Middle School fun!
This week’s topic is First Day of School. I’ve done different things every year but below is what I hope will provide me some good information on the first day.
When my students walk in, I will have them grab a copy of my syllabus. I’m still working on this but will have it posted on Monday for #made4math as that gives me a deadline to get it DONE! I will also have them grab 4 stars (different colors for each class).
After all students are in, I will do a brief intro of myself and a run-down of the syllabus. I will then give them time to give me some feedback for the year.
This all started because I saw the poster above while browsing blogs one day. I totally want to know what my students want/expect from me. I will create a similar poster and leave out different colored markers for them to write on the poster with. Since I have 7 classes, I might need a really big poster! LOL!
Then, I will have 4 other INTERACTIVE posters that will have leading questions on them. Questions I have thought of are: What grade do you want to earn in this class? What part of math is the hardest for you? Will you be responsible this year? Will you turn in all assignments on time?
The great thing about giving them a colored star to answer the question in the column they choose is that it is completely anonymous. What they don’t know yet is that the questions are more detailed on the online Student Survey I have them fill out for me in a Google Doc form.
So, what do you do in the first few days of school to start the year off with a success?