Hello Internet Audience!
Wow! What an exciting first five days of school! I think this post will be best put if I just give a synopsis of how each day went.
First let me explain my schedule...
Periods 1, 2, and 3 are Language Arts and Social Studies.
Periods 4, 5, and 6 are plan periods and lunch
Periods 7, 8, and 9 are Language Arts and Social Studies.
This means I can block my schedule-which I absolutely love!
Day 1- First half of the day, my nerves were immense but I tried not to show it. As I stand outside the door I shake the hands of my students and hand them a bell ringer to work on while they wait. As I am in the hall I have some Temptations playing in the background. I am currently reading Teaching with The Brain in Mind by Eric Jensen and learned that when you play music that separates the generations then a different level of respect surfaces in the classroom. It's almost a trick that the brain plays on us. Neat right? After we are all settled in, the school says the Pledge of Allegiance. I don't know about all the other teachers out there, but I feel that when that pledge is said on that first day of school, there is no richer feeling. Maybe it's just me, but I get goosebumps every time! After the pledge and announcements we run into attendance. Students are invited to say here, present, or anything school appropriate. I did get a few "wassups". After attendance we played the name game. During this game students have just 3 rules.
1. Say your name
2. Attach an adjective or an adverb that shares the same letter of your first name.
3. Create a movement
After the student has completed all three tasks, the rest of the circle must repeat everything that said student had done. We repeat everyone's movement and name until the very last one. It seems very tedious and at times students may say that it got boring, but I guarantee if you ask any one of my students what their name game motion was or what were some of the other students they would definitely remember! One student in this particular class felt that he had it harder than others because his name started with a Z. A couple of ideas were thrown out and we couldn't think of one, until someone yelled out "zit-faced" now I have a ZERO tolerance for insults and bullying and before I could bring up my zero tolerance policy, our z-man changed his nick name to "Zit-free Z-" at that moment I knew I had a truly special class! What an amazing moment for students to take a negative connotation and make it into a positive memory! It really was a true "knee-slapper"
After the name game we sat down and learned a little about Miss Knobloch, my likes, my family, and just how the procedures in the classroom make the year run smoother. We then transitioned into an expectations activity. During this activity, I put up various posters that read " What are you expectations of sixth grade? What are your expectations for me as your teacher, and what are your expectations for you as a student?" I also had another poster asking "why do we need classroom expectations". Students then collaborated in groups to come up with responses for each question. We came back to a whole group after about 10 minutes of discussion and read the student post-its aloud. I then compiled their list into a word document that is posted on my website and in the classroom. I have attached the student responses to this post, I did not edit any of the students words. After our expectations talk we ended the day with a discussion of where family comes from and yes I assigned homework on the first night. The homework was find out what their family history/heritage was. This is because I teach World history. This topic can help students connect their lives to the lives of the Greeks or the Romans. As the students walk out of the classroom they were expected to tell me one word that described either their day or the class that they were just in. Every single student had something positive to say! That just made my day!
Day 2- After such a successful first day, I wasn't quite sure how the second day was going to turn out. Students came in excited and ready to learn! Students were handed a bell ringer to start the day and were reminded of how to walk in and sit down right away. After going over some more house keeping and procedures we dove right into letter writing. Yes, letter writing, on the second day of school. I MUST BE INSANE! However, we went on with the lesson, students collaborated with each other to think up some ideas on what to write. Students then set to writing quick rough drafts to 7th grade students asking advice about 6th grade. How awesome that my class wanted to do this? They don't even know these people and are already asking for advice! Awesome! After letter writing, we took time to go over the expectations that were created in class. Students then edited or changed anything in the document per popular vote. We ended the day assigning the letter to 7th graders for homework and started working on our family crests based on our family history.
Day 3- Day three was amazing! My afternoon class all turned in their writing assignment from the previous night! I'm talking 100 percent people! I was so excited! I bragged to pretty much everyone at school, to them, and then I called their parents! I was so impressed! The third day of school and we had 100 percent homework completion! I am clearly ecstatic. After celebrating our homework completion, we then played more get to know you activities. We read out two truths and lie and then finished our family crests. ~I will update tomorrow with pictures. ~ In the morning, we had a school assembly to help explain the school wide expectations and PBIS. Here I was asked to talk about hallway procedure, however, I like to show not tell, so I picked two students to demonstrate what hallway behavior looked like. Can you imagine what that did for their "ego". They were smiling from ear to ear after their presentation. Flashing forward to the afternoon, my Golden Apple mentor came in during our pass the clap and if you remember, I was using methods from Cooling down the Classroom and Teaching with the Brain in Mind in order for the activity to work well. Holy canole! It was such a magical moment in this classroom! It really helped the students to gel as a team and not just a class.
There were three levels:
1. Pass the clap
a. Pass the clap with two claps.
2. Pass the emotion.
3. Create a symphony with just your voices and rhythm
I will post the audio to this activity once Molly sends it to me! Yay! Students were dismissed from class and were asked to describe their first three days of sixth grade with one word. Again, all positive. I love these classes!
Day 4- A day of business needless to say. Handed out text books, assessed any damages and went on with our day. Students were then introduced to decorating their writer's journals. They seemed extremely excited about this task. They were then introduced to the job applications and job descriptions that take place on our Help Wanted board. This idea is floating all over pinterest and I decided to try with sixth graders. They are so into it! Which is great because I feel that this is definitely something I want to teach them. It's such an important life skill and I'm glad they love it! (PICTURES TO COME TOMORROW)
Day 5- Today we came up with the afternoon's class name- The Bubble Bears. This is because during the first three days of school I had the students read letters from my students last year. One of the memories they wrote about was the fact that I was their "mama bear" so after reading this letter, my current sixth graders started referring to themselves as the baby bears. They then adopted bubbles, because they are asked to put a bubble in their mouth when it is time to remain quiet. I know that sometimes it can seem elementary, but with my dramatic and enthusiastic approach, I feel that they dig it. They only dig it because I dig it. It's all about the energy level in the room. That's why I never understood how some of my peers in school could stand the negative old teachers. I was so lucky to have mostly young and vivacious teachers who really cared about their students. I can only dream to be half the teachers they are! Needless to say, my afternoon class is now referred to as the Bubble Bears. (I love it! ) My morning class still needs to come up with a name, but they'll get there. As we continued on with passing out more textbooks, workbooks, and notebooks, I made sure that everyone had everything in order before we started reading our story for this unit. I like to read aloud despite some of the research that is against it. I feel that reading aloud especially before benchmarking and diagnostic testing I like to give every kid a chance to volunteer to read aloud, or to have a chance to read aloud. Despite any connotations they had the year before, this is their chance to start new. In order for it to be a safe place for students to read I went over just some expectations about how we need to respect each other and not make fun of each other's pronunciation. After saying this, one of my kiddos -from Bubble Bears- raises his hand and says " Why would we make fun of each other? Aren't we family?" AHH can you say warm fuzzies all over? I just love how they have truly gelled together! We ended class decorating our writer's journals and were dismissed with the request to share their favorite number as they exit the room.
It was a great day!
I will post pictures tomorrow. I'm also in the process of organizing and purchasing some materials from Teacherspayteachers. LOVE THEM!
I hope you enjoyed my rambling of how amazing my kiddos are! Have a great rest of the week everyone!
-HK
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I love groups, it is a natural set up for common core collaboration! Oh and if you look on that back wall-social studies wall- you'll see all of the family crests that were made. Also, on the left, are my "Star students" These students were prepared for class ALL week and earned a star on the cabinet, then they had the choice of where they wanted to sit for silent reading. The teacher's desk was a popular option. :)
Thank you Pinterest for this great idea! Students had to apply for a number of positions that will help our class run smoothly during the school day. Students then had to get a letter of recommendation from either a student, another teacher, or a parent. Interviews will be conducted this week during class.
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Daily Schedule followed by a visual for students to remember what happens when my hand or another adult's hand is raised in the air.
Reading corner! I love visuals!
My AR board. "Treasure is what you are" -Thank you Bruno Mars for the beautiful lyrics that inspire not only my bulletin board ideas, but also the read ability of my students!
Who said word walls were just for elementary schools?
In order for students to remain organized, and to help myself stay organized, we have a daily planner on the board. On the right is where our target statements are located. I like the idea of sectioning off my white board in order to maintain some kind of organization.
