First Day of School

The first day of school can be a terrific challenge. Establishing rapport is one of the initial goals. The following exercise facilitates the process:

Lesson Objectives:

* Students will get to know me

* Students will demonstrate their ability to reflect upon themselves and their accomplishments by writing on the very first day

* I will learn something interesting/memorable about my students

Grade level and subject area: 7-12/All

Activities and strategies:

1. I introduce myself.

2. I discuss some of my highs and lows (dreams and disappointments) while referring to my posted copy of the sheet (see above).

3. I ask students to think of some of their own disappointments and rewards and to write them down on a sheet like the image above.

4. Students look over their papers, thinking of the stories behind each of the things they've written.

5. I tell three stories of my own:

a) (1-2 minutes) A story about something funny that happened to me.

b) (15-30 seconds) A story about something I know nothing about. This shows that we can't speak about something we don t know about.

c) (1-2 minutes) I tell a story about something that happened when I was a child.

 6. Students write a story about a topic that they know well.