First Day Of School Escape Room

Hello!

I have officially been with students for three days! I can already tell I have a great group and I'm very excited for this year. 

I wanted to start the year off with a bang, but it's hard to do that when teaching procedures, rules, disclosure/syllabus stuff etc. In years past I have gone over all my rules with a powerpoint and it's  been excruciating for everyone involved.

My fabulous PLC member found an escape room on TPT and we each bought it and decided to try it out. It was SO awesome! Students were super engaged and I  have never seen them going over a syllabus so carefully in their entire lives.  

There are four tasks included in the escape room, students get a key word with each task and that is how they move on to the next task. The first one is a getting to know you game where students have to make BINGO with things they did over the summer. 

Then they do a supply scavenger hunt where they are given different riddles and they have to find places in the room where those supplies are kept. Each spot has a letter and they eventually find all the letters to come up with a word.

The third task is a syllabus close read, and the fourth task is a cryptogram with growth mindset quotes.

We had to tweak the escape room a little bit to fit our needs and then we had to come up with some rules to help students actually get the content of the different activities instead of just skipping ahead to the end where they got their key word. For example, I really made a point in telling them to be careful about their voice volume because they don't want other teams to hear their work. All this group work and it was a super quiet room! I also required that the students decode all the growth mindset quotes instead of just the underlined parts that gave them the key word, that way they would actually understand the quotes. 

It was a great activity, students understood everything that they should on disclosure day and they loved doing something different.

You can purchase this Back to School Escape Room from Nouvelle ELA! Thanks to her for all the work that went into it! 

First Days of School

Hello!

It's been a glorious summer and I'm very excited to go back to school!

I have been evaluating my process for the first day of school since last year and I have decided to change it up entirely. It used to be all about the rules so I could keep my classroom management in check. This year, I am going to work harder at building relationships and a classroom community and I think the classroom management element will come naturally. 

Here are a few things I am implementing this year...

1. Book Talks

I'm an English teacher, so it would be only natural that I should book talk on the first day! I will be highlighting three books, two I read over the summer and one all time favorite. This will show students that I'm invested in reading from day one.

2. Start learning ASAP

This was a suggestion I saw on Instagram and it makes total sense! What better way to jumpstart those brains than by doing some real work on the first day? We will be reading My Name by Sandra Cisneros and doing some close reading. We will then tie that into Name/Nombres by Julia Alvarez, and then tie both of those works into a writing assignment about the students. 

3. Unique getting to know you activities

I am such a grump when it comes to getting to know you activities. I hate them all, usually. I think they are all contrived and a lot of times are done for the sake of doing them, not for the actual information. However, I value getting to know my students! I wanted to find some unique and fun activities that wouldn't make the students feel like we were just going through the first week motions. I found a couple ideas I am very excited about. The first one is called, "If I Ruled the World." Basically, it's a fill in the blank poem that really helps you to get to know students. This is mine..

This is a fun way to get to know students, their likes and dislikes and most importantly, how they see themselves. 

Another great activity is the "Perfect Day" activity. I found this on Pinterest and instead of doing a daily life clock, I thought it would be great to do a "perfect day" clock. I did one for myself as an example and I feel like a stranger could look at it and know exactly all the things I love to do. Sleep, craft, play with makeup, hang with my friends, etc! So much better than a boring survey. 

4. Rules

Yep, you always have to have rules in a functioning classroom. Previously, I have gone the very old school route of having students write down rules word for word. I am super embarrassed to admit it, but it was the only way I knew how to keep order. Yeah, no longer.

After I do a really brief rundown of rules and procedures, students will be making skits!

I have heard that I have a particularly silly group of kids coming in, so I think they will love this activity! They can get as creative and silly as they want, I will even have a few random costume pieces that they can throw together. I'm excited to see how this goes.

In a few other classes that this won't work for, I found this breakout game (no equipment needed) from Nouvelle ELA on TPT. It looks so fun!

5. Teamwork

I am taking on a new elective class this year, Mock Trial, and it's really important to me to get in the teamwork frame of mind. I think this could be really useful in all classes as well. Students need to learn to be collaborative and work with people even if they aren't their friends. We will be doing a lot of team activities. I have compiled a big list of short improv games that would be great for warmups. I also found this great activity using plastic easter eggs that would be a great lesson on teamwork. When I was at ISTE, I went to a presentation on a game maker lesson and my students will be starting day two with this awesome team building exercise. Basically, students get in groups and are given play doh and a paper folder and they have to make a game.

It's easy to be freaked out by the first days of school. I have had so many nightmares about having the meanest class ever, not having disclosures ready, not sure of what I'm teaching etc. Whatever you do, just have set rules and procedures and be kind, but also a little scary :) and you'll be fine! If that advice doesn't help, check out this really great article from The Cornerstone for Teachers about dealing with back to school anxiety.

Remember, we preach a growth mindset to our students yet don't always expect it with ourselves. If you have a rocky first day of school, just realize that any day can be the first day of school and kill it!