Welcome Back to School!

SCHOOL is COOL!

The first day of school will be here before you know it or you're not prepared. Most teachers face the big day with excitement, but they dread the inevitable challenge: what to do on the first day of school? Every teacher’s approach is different and for whatever reasons, here are a few things to try to get the school year off to a great start!

Getting to Know Your Students

1. How well will your incoming students know you? 
2. How well do you know them? 
3. How well do they know each other? 
4. How well do they know the school? 

These are important questions to consider as you start planning the first day.

Assess Learning Styles or Multiple Intelligences

For older students, the first day of school can be a great chance to chat with their classmates and summer vacation, or find out more about how they learn. There are many different learning style inventories available online just Google. Find out the many different ways your students are smart by having them complete a multiple intelligences assessment. Have students share these results.

It can encourage students who have typically struggled if they know you are aware of the things they are good at, and it provides an opportunity to address some of those “I’m dumb/she’s dumb” issues that inevitably crop up in a classroom.

Introducing Your Subject(s)

For some teachers, the first step is helping students to understand what they are going to learn this year. But you don’t always want to start right off with a lecture or worksheet, so try to get them guessing. Prediction activities can be a great way to activate students’ prior knowledge on a topic and get them excited about what lies ahead in the course.