Get to know Me

Knowing about our students is necessary, but we should not forget that they also need to know about us: Our objectives, expectations, classroom routines and procedures, teaching style, etc. Providing them with such information from the start is going to help us clarify those boundaries that define our relationship and thus save us a lot of effort and time.

Here are two back to school activities to help your students and also their parents get to know you.

1. My video

The first common thing teachers do on the first day of school is introduce themselves to students. They tell about their names, the subjects they teach, their objectives, techniques, classroom procedures…etc. Yet, to spark more of your students’ attention you can make such an introduction much more interesting. Why not film a short video (of no more than 5 minutes) in which you tell about yourself and also show your excitement about this year and what you’re expecting from your students?

To make your video more interesting, consider the background, play music while recording it, and use posters to explain things. Before watching, you can ask your students to brainstorm ideas then address some questions and discuss the video content.

2. About Me Letter

Because your students’ parents also need to know about you, you can send them a letter during the first weeks via mail or simply ask each student to hand it to his parent. This will help you start building connections with them before scheduling any meeting. For more information, here is a sample of this letter.

Get to know my students

Knowing about our students is an ongoing process that starts from the first day of school and develops through everyday observation and interaction with them. Indeed, during these first weeks, we need to get a general idea about our students’ profiles which gets more explicit over time.

This profile covers their previous learning experience, learning views and emotions, learning needs and preferences, expectations, goals, and background information on the subject matter we teach (in case they had it last year). How to gain such information? Here are some suggestions.

3. My worksheet

To know about your students you can hand out this worksheet and ask them to complete it in the classroom. You’d better not assign it home as you may need to clarify questions and support your students to provide the kind of information that reflects them. (Click here to download it)

If you’re teaching young learners who may not be that aware of their learning process, you can simply ask them to make a drawing that represents how they feel about this school year. Then, listen to each one of them showing and explaining what his drawing means.

4. About Me

This comprehensive resource includes engaging back-to-school activities to use with your students. These activities are grouped into three units: About Me, Me & the World, and My Learning. To learn about them click here.

5. What I WANT

In this activity, you’re going to ask students the following question: If I’m asked about the only thing I want from my teacher this year, I would say…

Give them some time to think, then each student writes his answer on the board.

6. Guess Who I am

Put Students in groups of four or five then ask each one to write a short paragraph introducing himself (name, preferences, hobbies) on cards. The members of the same group should read those cards and know about each other.

After that, each group will select a card to tell about one of their members (all information except the name) while the other groups are supposed to guess who is that student. While a student is reading the card of his classmate, the other members are supposed to mislead those who are guessing by pointing to the wrong person.

7. What It Means

It’s so important to get an idea about our students’ perceptions and beliefs regarding learning. Because this can help us instil a growth mindset in them.

To explore those learning perceptions and beliefs, give students the following words (you may add others) and ask them to write in a few words what each means for them :

School, Success, Failure, Exams, Participation in class, Teacher Behaviour, Discipline, Team Work, Homework.

8. The best gift

In this activity, each student shares what s/he has learned from their previous teacher(s). It can be a skill, new information, a personal attitude, etc. An alternative to this activity is asking them to share their best memories of learning.

Seize this opportunity to know what kind of teachers they favour most and why. So, listen and grab more ideas by bringing up more discussion on this activity.

9. My questions

Students need to understand not only what you’re going to bring to their learning, but also how you intend to do so. To clarify this, make flashcards with different colours and label each one using those essential elements of students’ learning such as Lessons, Homework, Exams, Discipline, Projects, and Rewards.

To prompt students’ questions, stick these flashcards on the board or simply show them to students and ask them to write their questions. Students can select whatever element to address their questions or opt for all of them. Listen to your students’ questions and take your time to clarify things. It will pay off.

10. Inside the box

Because students’ suggestions are always worth considering, we need to call upon them from the beginning of the year. Whatever grade level you’re teaching, ask your students to share their ideas, they will feel more concerned with their learning.

You can use this activity to encourage them to voice their ideas regarding what they want to learn and how this year. Ask them to put forward their suggestions regarding these learning elements :

A lesson(s) to introduce, a technological device, an activity to do in the classroom, a project idea to assign, etc.

Students can choose from these elements, write their suggestions while indicating why, and put them inside a box. You can then read them and make the necessary decisions.

11. What I already know

If your students have dealt with your subject matter before, you can devote some time for revision to check ‘what they already know’. To achieve this, prepare activities that cover basic or important learning that they are supposed to have developed. Try to make these activities more interesting and engaging and note down all those learning needs.

Building a positive classroom community

As partners (teachers and students) in the learning process, it’s important to know about each other. But, this does not suffice to establish a secure learning environment where every student feels comfortable with his mistakes. Our intent should focus on building a positive classroom community because not only our relationships with students matter but also relationships among students themselves do as well.

So, building a positive classroom community should be every teacher’s goal from the first day of school. Help students respect, and support each other and show kindness. They need to feel that they belong to one community whose well-being and growth depend on them. Here are some back to school activities to achieve this goal.

12. Social-emotional learning task cards

This activity aims to develop students’ social-emotional learning skills. Students work on these task cards which include 23 situations. They need to match each classroom situation with the right student’s attitude, then discuss and practise them. These task cards teach turn-taking, sharing, showing empathy, asking for help, disagreeing respectfully, dealing with conflict, dealing with anxiety, and self-regulating emotions. To learn about these task cards, click here.

13. Team building activities

To support your students to know each other, collaborate, and build positive relationships, I have created an effective resource for you: Team Building Activities which you can use during the first weeks of school or whenever you want to do so. These include a variety of engaging tasks where students talk, and work individually, in pairs, and groups. Here is your resource.

 

I hope you will find these back to school activities helpful. Don’t forget that the first weeks of school are so important for your students’ learning. Everything you do in the classroom including your words and attitudes matters to make this learning journey more successful. GOOD LUCK.