First Week of School Ideas
Back to School Ideas with CPS Response Pads (clickers) and InterWrite WorkSpace for IW Pads and Boards
How might you use your CPS clickers, CPS Chalkboard or InterWrite pad to build a safe and collaborative community during the first week of school? Effective teachers know that taking a few minutes during this time to develop and teach routines and establish expectations. Doing so saves precious minutes of potentially wasted time down the road. Diverse students can come together in a learning community if they get to know and respect each others’ differences as well as common goals for the time spent in your classroom. Some of you might recognize some of these from an August 2007 blog entry:
Using your CPS Response Pads
1. Introducing yourself: create a 10 question Q & A about yourself (with images of your family, home, vacation, favorite things, pets, hobbies) allowing the students to guess. Add humorous alternatives, if possible! (Thanks to Mr. Kellogg at Lowell Scott Middle School in Meridian for reminding me of this idea!)
Q: When Mrs. Jones was a teenager, she worked at ____________.
a. McDonald’s
b. Disneyland
c. getting a tan at Newport Beach
Answer: B with C as a close 2nd!
2. Introduce the students. Allow the students to create a list of 2 truths and a lie. Using Verbal mode, use 5 or 6 student submissions per day to help students get to know each other.
Q: Choose Kyle’s lie.
a. Kyle has vacationed in Paris.
b. Kyle has a V shaped scar on his knee from skateboarding.
c. Kyle still has his 1000 Pokemon card collection in his closet.
Allow the students to guess A, B or C. I would imagine the results would depend on how well the students already know each other and how thoughtful the choices are.
3. More academic ideas include:
a. Do a learning styles inventory.
b. Do some diagnostic questions for attitudes about your subject matter or current knowledge level.
c. Develop teams, learning groups or peer editing circles around some common survey questions.
d. Practice the Student Paced Assessment mode with a quick 10-question FastGrade lesson. Students simply guess at the answers. In this safe, “even playing field” environment, teachers can show the kind of reporting available at the end of the quiz. Have a goofy prize available for the best guessers (check out the Instructor Summary under the Reports tab).
Using your InterWrite Pad or CPS Chalkboard
1. Create a table in WorkSpace or RMEasiteach with at least one box per student.
a. Add categories like: skis, loves to sing, has at least 3 pets, watches Myth Busters regularly, has read the Twilight series, etc. Use a variety of skills, interests and traits.
b. Print and copy papers for each student. In ten minutes (or so), students are instructed to walk around, visit with their classmates, get as many signatures as possible, limited to one classmate per box. When time is called, student with the most signatures wins.
c. Collaboratively, using the winning student’s paper, try to complete the displayed table with each student’s names. You may need to pick up your eraser tool (TIP – hold down the button closest to the tip of the InterWrite pen to access a small eraser.)
2. Introduce yourself, classroom procedures,
a. Using InterWrite Workspace or RMEasiteach, use the text tool to create a variety of text boxes. To introduce yourself, you might create some text boxes that include some things that are true about you, some of your future goals and some ideas that are not true. Using a graphic organizer (access the gallery in IW and the Multimedia files in RM), tell a few stories about yourself as you drag the text boxes to the correct places on the graphic organizer. Encourage students to guess which items are the “lies”.
b. Using the text tools, mix up a list of procedures (you could also use the handwriting recognition tool to allow for brainstorming here) common to your class. Pass the pad or chalkboard to a group of students to “organize” the list by dragging and dropping the items into a specific order. Spark discussion about why a certain flow works best in your class.
3. Use the dice or spinner to randomly select a number between 1 and 6. Each number can represent a scenario common in your classroom. Jump to a page in your WorkSpace or EasiTeach book to discuss each scenario and brainstorm possible outcomes. Post positive ideas in your classroom by printing the results or posting on the class website, wiki or blog. Scenarios may include:
a. Susie gets to school without her homework and her mom refuses to bring it to her.
b. Sam keeps texting under his desk. Raul is getting annoyed by it.
c. During the poster making activity, Lila insists her group use only using pink and purple pens. When the group tries to use other colors, she folds her arms and refuses to participate.
d. T.J. forgot his pencil. Pen is not allowed on the quiz.
e. Some students are frustrated when Mrs. Jones is continuing to go on with the lesson and they feel lost. They aren’t clear about what to do on the assignment.
Send additional ideas to Amy Jones and she’ll post them at here.
