In my school district, we’re preparing for the short turnaround between one semester and the next, where similar to a college campus, new schedules, classes and students are arriving. What’s so different about this second semester from the first is that all of us, students and teachers alike, are a little more worn and stressed as a mere weekend and one teacher workday separates the two. The excitement and curiosity; the urgency to have classrooms setup perfectly or find the right outfit for the first day that happened in August doesn’t translate to January.
However, one aspect that should remain just as important is building relationships with our new students. The same “getting to know you” activities used during the first week of school still apply for this new semester. Since August feels more like 5 years ago, not 5 months, let me give you a refresher on some ideas to start building those key relationships.
SURVEYS IN GOOGLE FORMS
One of my favorite suggestions starting off with new students is to create a survey in Google Forms. With some of the newer features, you can add images, memes, and short YouTube video clips to make this fun, yet informative. Not only will you get to know your students, you can also give them an opportunity to voice their needs such as sitting near you during individual work time or past struggles with specific topics, and tell you what their expectations are for your class.
Here’s one example and here’s another.
If you’re still fairly new to using Google products, the Google Teacher Center has a great tutorial series which guides you through your first day using individual G Suite products. Here’s the tutorial for Google Forms.
THE FUN KIND OF SYLLABUS
As a student, I can remember teachers going over class rules and grading policies the first few days of the school year and wanting to be anywhere else because it was so repetitive and boring! I would doodle in the margins of my syllabus looking for any kind of entertainment until class was over. But with a gamified syllabus students (working in teams) can learn about what will be covered in class, your specific class procedures, and anything else you need for them to know in a format that’s a cross between scavenger hunt and video game. Check out Edrenline Rush’s Gamified Syllabus.
Another great way to preview what is coming up in your class and create early expectations is through a course movie trailer. Make it engaging by adding a theme such as a road trip, theme park, or pick an idea from a popular movie or classic board game. Then use this theme throughout your course when introducing new units. Check out these movie trailer examples I’ve compiled in this Wakelet.
Welcome videos have also become popular among teachers as a way to introduce themselves to students before the year or semester starts. Tell students about your teaching experience, background, hobbies and then dive into the course content a bit describing what is coming up or your favorite units. Allow students to see you as a person, not just their teacher and share your passion for education. This will go a long way towards building those initial relationships. WeVideo or Adobe Spark Video are two great apps to use.
MOTIVATION WITH DIGITAL VISION BOARDS
Visualizing and setting goals is a proven way towards achievement. Using Google Slides or Drawings to create digital vision boards will allow students to tell you about themselves and envision future accomplishments. On this digital version, students can insert pictures from the web, images of themselves from Google Photos or through the camera app found under the Insert menu. They can also insert hyperlinks or YouTube videos to their favorite things or portfolios of past work.
Here’s a quick tutorial on Google Drawings that was part of my application video to become a Google Certified Trainer. This shows how to do some of the features I mentioned. Shake Up Learning also describes how to use digital vision boards in class as part of her Back to School with G Suite series.
But if students feel more comfortable doing this on paper, let them! That’s the great thing about giving students choices, let them decide how they want to produce their final product. The same goes for using different products. If students know of and have access to different apps and the integrity of the assignment remains the same, why not allow it? In the end, it’s still the same product, there’s just more than one way to get a final result.
APPS DAY
One of the sessions I went to this year at VSTE was #Apps Day presented by Patrick Hausammann and Phil Strunk. They use this HyperDoc during the first couple of days of class. The idea has two parts: the first, helps students learn the apps you will use during the semester or year and not give up time during a project to have them try and figure it out. It also allows students a chance to introduce themselves to their teachers and show what they’ve learned about using these different products.
They added specific apps that they use such as Flipgrid or Screencastify and created tasks. The HyperDoc can be updated to use the apps that are essential to your classroom. Here’s the link to their presentation that includes a template you can recreate for your own purposes.
OTHER IDEAS
For the last two years, my very first episode of the season for Tech Tuesday, rounds up lesson ideas for the first week of school. Check them out below:
What are some other ideas you have? Do you have non-digital ideas too? Feel free to share in the comments below!
Ms Priester EDU 