First Day Revisited

Wow! What a week?! I took care of all my teachers and didn't get much time to take care of myself this week. I finally sat down and really planned out my first day of school. I had a plan that I blogged about here, but that has changed a bit due to some required info that must be disseminated in each period. It's the school plan for addressing the student handbook, because we all know that it doesn't actually get read. So, each period is assigned a different part of the handbook to review with students. I thought having pages 8-11 would be no big deal, but it's actually quite a bit of information. I don't want to just read it or have my students read it, so of course, I had to come up with something a bit more interesting. Thanks, Trista for mentioning a jigsaw! The beginning of the lesson was modeled after a post by Daniel Schneider. His first day plan is so thorough and well thought-out. Okay, so here's the plan:

• Line up by birthdays
• Answer math question correctly to grab a partner and pick your seat. (integer questions since that will be our first lesson)
• Seats assigned, now let's practice how you'll enter the classroom.
• Warm-up, page 11 of handbook - highlight any phrase you think is important & underline any phrase you have a question about
• Handbook Jigsaw - each group assigned a page to highlight & underline as modeled in the warm-up
• "Pay attention, there's going to be a quiz afterwards."
• Students share highlights and underlines for whole class
• "My Life in Numbers" Quiz, followed by Prezi with answers.
• "Student Life in Numbers" - 5 numbers important to students and why. 1-2 paragraphs. HW if not completed in class.
• Procedure for exiting classroom.

The "Student Life in Numbers" will flow into the next day as their paper blog post. Day 2 plan:

• Warm-up - Highlight & underline syllabus
• Syllabus acknowledgment placed in HW folder and due tomorrow
• "What is a Blog?" discussion & video
• Complete paper blog post using "Student Life in Numbers" assignment
• Discuss & show examples of good commenting vs. bad commenting
• Post-it note commenting activity
• Lockdown Procedures (I know that doesn't flow, but required by school)

So, that's a rough outline. Here's a copy of my SMART Notebook files (and pdf) for both days...

Day 1 - Mrs. Howard.notebook Download File Day 1 - Mrs. Howard.pdf Download File

Day 2 - Mrs. Howard.notebook Download File Day 2 - Mrs. Howard.pdf Download File

I feel good about it. Afraid I may have too much on day one, so it may change within the next 24 hours, but I feel good about the plan. I really hope to have a good experience with the paper blogging. It feels a bit rushed, but I have to start curriculum on day three. I'll be sure to share the results!