by TeachThought Staff
Welcome to a new school year!
While most teachers and students have much to look forward to as the new school year begins, the end of summer can sometimes be seen as a tragic end to freedom and fun.
Like Mondays, the beginning of the school year can sometimes fill you with dread. The good news is that dread is only based on imagined outcomes and even if those are sometimes realized, there are ways to mitigate some of these challenges.
Your classroom, indeed, feeds off your energy. You are handed a classroom full of students excited to return but not so enthusiastic to study. You can even use their summer slide to your advantage and bring back the joy of learning. It isn’t as monumental a task as it seems.
Ideas For Easing Students Back to School
1. Reboot your teaching techniques
While often chaotic and packed with tasks, meetings, and responsibilities, the new school year also allows you to start fresh. This means you can spend quality time with yourself, reflecting on the things that went well in the past year and the things you can revise and improve. It’s always a good idea to find out who is in your class and to start personalized learning. Introduce technology into your classroom, use more visual aids, and make your lessons more practical. It’s a good time to create goals that promote student-centric learning.
2. Create a Welcoming Environment
No matter your students’ age, we are all visual creatures. Returning to a drab and grey class can put most people off the idea of learning. Make their return a thing to celebrate. Throw a welcome back party. Open up the windows. Add some color to the room. Create student boards they want to be featured on. There are are a million things you could do depending on how much time and access you have to resources.
Decorate the Classroom: Use vibrant and welcoming decorations. Consider themes that are engaging and inclusive.
Personalize the Space: Allow students to bring something from home to decorate their desks or classroom bulletin boards.
3. Establish Routines Early
Morning Meetings: Start the day with a meeting to set the tone and review the schedule.
Consistent Schedules: Maintain a consistent schedule to help students feel secure and understand expectations.
4. Icebreaker Activities
Get-to-Know-You Games: Activities like “Two Truths and a Lie” or “Find Someone Who” can help students learn about each other.
Team-Building Exercises: Simple team-building activities can foster community and collaboration.
6. Engage in Mindfulness and Meditation
Mindfulness Exercises: Start the day or transition times with short mindfulness exercises to help students focus and reduce anxiety.
7. Incorporate Fun Learning Activities
Interactive Learning: Use games and interactive activities to review material from the previous year.
Creative Projects: Assign creative projects that allow students to express themselves and share their summer experiences.
8. Talk to Parents/Families
Parent Newsletters: Send home newsletters to keep parents informed and involved in the back-to-school process.
Open House Events: Host an open house for parents to see the classroom and meet the teacher.
Provide Emotional Support
Check-Ins: Regularly check in with students to see their feelings and address any concerns.
Counseling Resources: Ensure students are aware of counseling resources available to them.
9. Set Goals and Expectations
Goal Setting: Help students set personal and academic goals for the year.
Classroom Contracts: Create a classroom contract with input from students to establish clear expectations and responsibilities.
10. Rewind & Recap
There is no point in starting your lessons if your students will see stars anyway. Use the first week to ease them back into your classroom processes by exciting them. Time is of the essence, but there is no debating the importance of a good foundation. Remember how you hated Math when the concepts the teacher taught you went over your head? Do you think you would have understood better if you were more comfortable–not just engaged, but at ease in the classroom?
One idea? Create an elaborate hangman game: Divide the class into teams and divide their lessons. Each group will have to think up words for the other groups to guess. Once the word is guessed correctly, the group can explain the term/concept.
11. Use Video Games
Also, consider teaching with video games. You will see that gamification and using new-age media in education can be powerful tools to ease students back into the classroom. You may find students—especially those put off by a traditional classroom—completely at ease when dealing with video games and related technology. One example is this small town in Mexico that is unleashing a new generation of geniuses using the very simple concept of self-study and technology.
Let your students enjoy a couple of hours a week in the computer lab, engaging in online learning games, discovering things about a subject a textbook can’t teach you. After all, kids learn and retain these lessons better when they use them practically – even if they only have access to a virtual lab.
12. Create A Simple Game Show
Host your own game show: I know pop quizzes are a universally hated concept but imagine you play it in the style of your favorite game show – Minute to Win It, Hollywood Squares, Family Feud, and one quiz show I recently discovered on my trip to England – Never Mind the Buzzcocks. If you cannot pick the kind of quiz format you want to follow, you could always divide the class into teams and each group could pick a format and create their own quizzes around foundation topics that are important to know this year. Create fun rounds, each round carrying certain points. Add a buzzer to the mixture and you are all ready to go.
Take a deep breath, brew yourself some nice tea, and sit back. The ideas in your head will become a concrete plan, and going back to school will seem like a cinch this year. Whatever your plans for your class this year, know that you are going to be amazing, and in being that, you’re going to let your class come into its own.