Wrap-Up of the First Week of the School Year

We finished our first week of school last week, and of all the years that I've been in education, it was the best start of school that I think I've ever been a part of. I wanted to share a little bit with you on why it wonderful, as well as share what I saw and heard. 

The week before the students returned, the teachers came back to work and we (administrators) built on the momentum of our summer book studies of Do You Know Enough About Me to Teach Me? and Teach Like a Pirate. We emphasized building relationships with students. It was a part of our message whether we were discussing discipline and classroom management, the use of technology, or our advisory classes. 

People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.

When the students returned to school, they were in for a surprise. With our entire school going to 1:1 with iPads, there were no issuing textbooks on the first day of class and there was a lot of relationship building and technology training. 

Here's a little bit of what I experienced....

In this class, the students partnered with someone in the class and asked them questions to get to know them better. They then had to introduce their new friend to the rest of the class.

In the picture above, the students had to use a QR Code scanner app to open a Google form where the teacher collected information about them so that she could get to know them better.

In this computer science class, the teacher quickly assessed the students' understanding of binary language.

Armed with only a ruler, string, and a metric conversion table, the students in physical science had to scan a QR Code to find out what they had to measure then they had to figure out how to make the best measurement.

The Foods & Nutrition teacher showed students how to use Pic Collage to create a collage about themselves.

And to top it all off.....

The first freshmen recipient of a Praise Referral. 

I loved getting to call this student's mom and brag on him! 

(You can read my blog post about our Praise Referrals HERE.) 

At the end of the day on Friday, one of our teachers emailed the entire staff and this is what her email said:

I entered the bathroom a few minutes ago and there were 2 girls chatting.  

This is what I heard:  

“Oh my gosh!  I love all my classes!” 

“No girl, I love all my classes more!” 

“My favorite class is 3rd period.  I have the best teacher!” 

So congratulations to those of you who’s students think you are great!!

All in all... we had a super week! How was yours?