Welcome (back) to High School!
First day jitters anyone? Heading back to high school can be nerve-racking for anyone especially freshman entering a new building with new teachers. North Providence has freshman students go to school the day before all other grades so that they can meet their teachers and figure out where their classes are. This is a very interesting concept as well as an awesome one!
My cooperating teacher, Mr. Ramos plays Kahoot! with his freshmen literacy skills students as a way for them to get an introduction to who he is. He included questions about his family, favorite music, what he likes most about being a teacher (The awesome teenagers lol) and what clubs he is involved in like the GSA- now called North Providence Pride Alliance! Whoever scored the highest was asked what their favorite candy was a reward.
Mr. Ramos has 3 different classrooms that he travels too but the room he shares with Mrs. Ryan is the only room he has freshman so they decorated the room and called it "Great Aunt Tillie's Place"; with rubber ducks,
lamas,
turtles,
and any whacky thing that comes to mind!
Once they finished to Kahoot!, Mr. Ramos handed out half sheets of paper for students to anonymously write 5 interesting facts about themselves on. Once they were done, they crumpled up the paper and were to have a "snowball fight" with the papers for approximately 1 minute. Once the minute was up, everyone should have someone else's paper and then someone starts by reading the facts and the class tries to guess whom the paper belongs too.
The students really enjoyed this game and some of the facts were really very interesting!
Mr. Ramos's juniors did something different. They created manifestos
- with the help of prompts from Mr. Ramos- about who they are, what they believe in, what they value, etc.. This assignment is not only used as a way for Mr. Ramos to build a community with his students, but it will also be counted as their first writing assignment. Mr. Ramos is doing this assignment with Mrs. Ryan and Mr. Ryan and they plan on hanging all of the students' manifestos on an empty bulletin board in the hall.
These community builders and getting to know you activities were so much fun to watch and the students really got into them! It was a very interesting and creative way to get to know students instead of the traditional, and rather boring, ice-breakers!
My cooperating teacher, Mr. Ramos plays Kahoot! with his freshmen literacy skills students as a way for them to get an introduction to who he is. He included questions about his family, favorite music, what he likes most about being a teacher (The awesome teenagers lol) and what clubs he is involved in like the GSA- now called North Providence Pride Alliance! Whoever scored the highest was asked what their favorite candy was a reward.
Mr. Ramos has 3 different classrooms that he travels too but the room he shares with Mrs. Ryan is the only room he has freshman so they decorated the room and called it "Great Aunt Tillie's Place"; with rubber ducks,
lamas, turtles, and any whacky thing that comes to mind! Once they finished to Kahoot!, Mr. Ramos handed out half sheets of paper for students to anonymously write 5 interesting facts about themselves on. Once they were done, they crumpled up the paper and were to have a "snowball fight" with the papers for approximately 1 minute. Once the minute was up, everyone should have someone else's paper and then someone starts by reading the facts and the class tries to guess whom the paper belongs too.
The students really enjoyed this game and some of the facts were really very interesting!
Mr. Ramos's juniors did something different. They created manifestos
- with the help of prompts from Mr. Ramos- about who they are, what they believe in, what they value, etc.. This assignment is not only used as a way for Mr. Ramos to build a community with his students, but it will also be counted as their first writing assignment. Mr. Ramos is doing this assignment with Mrs. Ryan and Mr. Ryan and they plan on hanging all of the students' manifestos on an empty bulletin board in the hall. These community builders and getting to know you activities were so much fun to watch and the students really got into them! It was a very interesting and creative way to get to know students instead of the traditional, and rather boring, ice-breakers!
Jaci, I also loved the Manifesto assignment that both Mrs. Ryan and Mr. Ramos assigned during the first week of school. I had never seen this type of assignment, and really enjoyed watching the students' manifestos come to life. I agree with you that this type of creative, community-building assignment is much more meaningful and insightful than the traditional, sometimes boring icebreakers and writing prompts that are often used. I fully intend on employing a manifesto assignment during the first week of school when I start teaching!
ReplyDelete