Alright folks, we did it! The first day of school came and went, and no one was injured. Below you will find a list of what I did to make it through the first seven class periods of the school year.
1. SET YOUR ALARM! I made the mistake of turning the volume down on my alarm clock in the vain attempt at not waking up the husband. I set it down so low that it didn't produce any sound at all..Not a great way to start the school year, but I let it slide and moved on.
2.Choose your outfit wisely. I wore a super cute dress from Target, along with some comfy Clark's shoes and leggings. Not too funky, but enough to feel confident. Having that ready to go when I was rushing around was a comfort.
3. Keep it simple. Go over the syllabus and answer any questions. Even though it is dull and you are ready to have fun, make sure you really get the info to them. No one likes to feel as if they have no clue on the class.
4. Social media! This year I established a twitter, blog and website. Post it everywhere. Have a contest to comment so the kids actually go to the site. This way they have it already and will be more willing to use it.
5. Try your best to get the correct nicknames or pronunciations. Duh.
6. Learn their names. Ask as many times as you can now so that when its progress report time, you won't feel guilty. (Admit it, you've done it before.) My biggest problem is pairing names to kids who sit next to each other. Especially if they are similar---Parker and Peyton, Haley and Kaley, etc.
7. RELAX---you have 36 weeks with them. Don't try to cram everything under the sun into one class period. Keep procedures and routines for the second day. They won't remember anyway. It will also help to avoid the schedule changers from feeling too out of place.
What were your procedures that worked? I'm still surprised that it went so smoothly. I hope this is indicative of the rest of the year.
No comments:
Post a Comment