A Great First Day

Every year I think about doing things differently the first week of school, but I'm never really quite sure how to go about it. I always start out with the best of intentions, but in the whirlwind of setting up my classroom, inservice, and open house, I always found myself behind the 8 ball. So I always went to the good old, tried and true beginning of the year activities that I've always gone with. They're safe. They're comfortable. And they're old.

Thankfully, I was able to set up my classroom prior to my surgery, so I had the entire last three weeks to think about how I wanted to start school this year. I had all of my new learnings from the different books I read, so I knew I wanted to add in a type of "tech boot camp" that I had learned in the EduProtocol Field Guide. I also knew that we were going to be learning more about the 7 habits, so I definitely wanted to incorporate more of those activities as well.

Despite all of these new learnings, I found myself still going back to the same activities I had always used. I was trying to fit the old activities into these new frameworks because they were safe, and I knew just how they would go. I had mapped out my plans for the first week, trying to tell myself that I had done something different, when really I was doing the same old thing just with different names.

Yesterday I spent a few final hours at school just make sure everything was ready to go. While I was there, I erased everything I had done in terms of plans. If I really wanted to make a change, I couldn't just take the same thing I had always done and give it a pretty new name. I had to really think about the activities I was doing and see exactly what their purpose was.

One thing that will not change: I am not jumping right into the content that I teach. I spend the first two to three weeks establishing routines and developing community. I know it puts me behind on the pacing guide, but the time I gain during the year makes it totally worth it.

So how did I change it up? I followed these steps:

• Establishing Categories - I sat down and thought about the things that I really wanted to or had to accomplish this week. When I really thought about it, I ended up with four main categories:
• School Needs - fire drill practice and school wide stations to learn about the school since it's our 4th graders' first year at Bear Creek
• Management - setting up binders and folders, morning and dismissal routines, lockers, and how to use your agenda
• Community / Habits - getting to know you activities, our class mission statement, setting up the classroom so it works for us, learning the 7 habits and how they fit in our classroom
• Tech Bootcamp - learning all about our new Chromebooks, setting up guidelines, Schoology, Google Suite, and any other activities we'll be doing
• Examining Activities - After I had the categories, I looked through my beginning of the year information and picked out the items for school needs and management. Next, I went through all of those beginning of the year activities that I have always used. I wanted to see if they actually fit into any of these new categories. While many of them did, some (and it pained me to put them to the side) just did not serve a purpose as I looked at my new classroom. Rather than spending that time simply because it's what I've always done, I tabled those activities for others that better met my needs.
• One really helpful step during this process was looking at each of my ice breakers and community building activities. If they fit with one of the 7 Habits, I kept it. If not, it was one of the tabled activities.
• Making A Plan - One thing that I've always done is plan WAY too much for the first two weeks. I always feel rushed because I'm trying to get to everything, and I'm sure that not much sinks in. So I decided to try something totally different. 
• First, I mapped out the beginning of the year school stations that were scheduled for me. Those items, along with lockers, took care of my school needs.
• Next I looked at the management issues that needed to be completed so I could do my ice breaker / community building activities. These activities included setting up our math and leadership binders, setting up our science folders and journals, and learning how to use our agendas.
• Then I added in the community building activities that fit with the 7 habits. I chose one activity each day, a daily reflection, and a weekly reflection so that we could get right into that routine.
• Finally, I thought about what we needed to learn in order to be successful with our new Chromebooks. I picked one of these activities each day to get the kids using technology.

We will be doing at least one activity from each of those four categories each day throughout the first week of school. 

Following this plan helped me have one of the most successful first days of school I can remember in the last 21 years. I didn't feel rushed, I felt like everything we were doing set the groundwork for my classroom goals, and I was able to help the kids see the purpose behind each activity. I cannot wait to see how the rest of the week goes!