Beginning the School Year With Connections: 2018 - Jackie Gerstein @JackieGerstein | E-Learning-Inclusivo (Mashup) | Scoop.it

"I have written before about the beginning of the school year, Beginning the School Year: It’s About Connections Not Content.

I begin all classes focusing on having the students make connections between each other and with me.  I want students to learn about one another in a personal way. I want to learn about my students so my instructional strategies can be more personalized and tailored to their needs and interests.

As we begin this new school year, I want to share my own ideas for what I believe represent best practices for doing so. I have the following goals for beginning the school year:

* To have the learners get to know one another and if they do know one another, to deepen that understanding.
* To have the learners get to know me as an educator.
*  set the climate that the classroom will experiential, engaging, fun, and student-centric.
* To begin the process of having learners learn to solve problems as a group and work cooperatively with one another.
* To begin creating a supportive climate – where learners support one another and I support their learning efforts.
* To give the message that social-emotional learning is important.
* To give the message that we will use our bodies, art, team building, problem solving, and interactions with classmates in the classroom.
* To have the learners take ownership of their classroom.
* What should also be obvious from this list is what is not on it – namely a focus on content-driven instruction during the first days of school.

These are the activities I used on the first day of school with my 2018 gifted classes of 2nd to 6th grade students (some similar to past beginning of the year activities and some new ones):"


Via John Evans