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Posts tagged ‘first day of school’

Aug 27

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Welcome Students on the First Day, Every Day (Guest Post)

By Diane Dougherty

Welcome Students!

How often have we seen this greeting posted on billboards in front of schools?  How often have we ourselves posted such a greeting in our very own classrooms?  And a fine greeting it is too!  We want our students to feel “welcome,” to know that each one is a part of the larger community of learners, to experience the warmth that comes from a sense of belonging; in short to feel gladly received into our classrooms, our “home away from home.”

When we invite guests into our homes, what do we do to ensure that they know they are welcome?  Can we apply some of the rules of being a good host/hostess to our beginning of the year (and, really, throughout the year) relationships with our students.  As one can find everything online, I googled “How to be a Good Host” and was hardly surprised by the multiple sites available on that topic.  Here are ten of these rules from various sites (listed in bold and in italics) that I believe transfer particularly well to the classroom:  Read more

Aug 19

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From the Classroom: Three Things to do in the First 48 Hours

By Tricia Ebarvia

Glance at almost any education focused website, blog, or Twitter feed in mid-August and you’ll find no shortage of first-day-of-school activities. In one of my education-related Facebook groups, someone recently asked for suggestions on how to spend the first day in class. Others asked about how much time to spend on community building activities versus how soon to jump into the curriculum. Not surprisingly, opinions varied, as they should.

As for me, I’ve spent less time reviewing the syllabus each year and more time on doing things that will get us reading, writing, and talking more quickly. My goals for the first two few days of school, then, include the following:

  1. Give students a general overview of the course
  2. Set up the classroom environment
  3. Learn about student preferences and interests

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