Off to school We go together

Well a new semester is just around the bend for some of us. Even veteran teachers feel nervous and struggle to prepare the first lesson. No matter what level you teach, establishing rapport with a new group of students is key to knowing how to help them learn. The first contact a teacher has with his/her students often makes a lasting impression for the entire semester or year.

So below I will share a few ideas that will help everyone get acquainted and might even start friendships that will last a lifetime. Let’s jump right into our first activity.

1st Activity – from chaos to order!

This activity is ideal for the students to notice the importance of organization in the development of the activities. The teacher can, from what the students do/say, raise a few rules to the organization of the classroom.

I ask the students, all at the same time, to sing their favorite song to the person next to them ( this activity will generate chaos); Then I ask one student to sing his/her song to the class alone. After that I ask students to say which is more pleasant – when everybody is singing together or alone. At this point I make my students perceive that the chaos is not acceptable and the order has some sense. The teacher can also discuss with the students other situations in which the organization is essential.

2nd Activity – Balloons in the air!

It’s an activity to break the ice and also to talk to them about the importance of group work.

Material needed: balloons, CD and a stereo.

I hand out the balloons and ask the students to blow them up. When everybody is ready with the balloons filled I explain that the student will play with the balloons like they do with a shuttlecock and when I touch a person, this person will leave the game, but his/her balloon will stay and the others must not let it fall down.

At the beginning it will be easy but as ask the students to leave the others will have more work to keep the balloons in the air. The game is over when you have only one student alone trying to keep all the balloons up.

Ask them what they thought of the game, if it was easy or difficult. They certainly will tell you that at first it was easy, but as the students were leaving it became increasingly difficult. So that, It's time for the teacher lead to the idea (if any of the student has not already done so) that the group work is like that. If the group members are not present to prepare the project, the others in the group will have more work and less chance of being successful.

3rd Activity – Students dictionary

            For this activity one will need paper and a digital camera. I took this activity from a site which I don’t remember. If someone  know where it is from, just let a comment, so that I can give credits to the one the credits are due. But let me explain the acidity.

The teacher writes five questions on the board. Questions might include the following:

• What is your name?
• Where were you born?
• How many brothers or sisters do you have?
• What are their names?
• Do you have any pets?

Then T tells students to write those questions on a piece of paper and to add to that paper five more questions they could ask someone they don't know. T pairs the students up, and have each student interview his or her partner and record the responses. Then have each student use the interview responses to write a "dictionary definition" of his or her partner to include in a Student Dictionary. You might model this activity by creating a sample dictionary definition about yourself. For example:

Tavares, Vanessa. proper noun. 1. Born in Paulista , Recife. 2. Three sisters, etc.

Bring a digital camera and take pictures of the students to paste next to their entries in the Student Dictionary. Bind the definitions into a book, and show it to the students.

 
Ok. I’m a little tired now. Tomorrow I will post some more ideas. Bye bye!