It’s that time of the year when students are happy and anxious at the same time. And both are attributed to the same fact – a new school year! With so many years of teaching experience up your sleeve, are you too feeling the same?
If not anxiety, at least your mind is working on how to break the ice. If you set the right ball rolling now, it will roll to the end of the year without any fuss and flutter. We have listed a few activities and ice-breakers for you to say welcome to your students in the new session:
Introduce yourself
Not all students are new to the school and neither you! They know
you somehow or the other, even if you haven’t taught them earlier. But, it’s always
a great idea to introduce yourself. What
they know of you is someone else’s impression about you. Let them know you,
from you. Talk a little bit about yourself. Add a few lines about your school
days. Children will love to hear how you were as a student!
Ask students to introduce themselves
Students have been together at least for a couple of years and know
each other pretty well. However, that’s not true! Children who are very
outgoing are usually favourites and everybody knows about them but what about
those who are shy and have never been at the centre of things. It’s time for
them to open up too. Ask them to write a 10 line autobiography on one half of
the paper and draw a self portrait on the other. Ask them to read it aloud one
by one and later stick all those portraits on a board in the classroom. You have just introduced a feeling of
belongingness in them!
School is a home away from home
Home is all about comfort and being your real self. School should be
the same if this clichéd statement has to be put to test. Children learn the best when they are
comfortable rather than in an impersonal environment. So plan some icebreaker
activities like give a sheet to them to put at least 10 things that each
student in class has in common like favourite star, favourite cricketer, favourite holiday destination etc. This will encourage teamwork.
Strike a chord
Students learn better when they feel connected to their teacher.
Come out of the conventional student teacher equation and reach out to them. Think
of a few things that interest them the most. The topmost common point of
interest for today’s generation is social media and internet, Plan some project that requires online
research and references and they will find you on the same ground as they are!
Set the expectation and goals right
Some of you might think that these icebreaking activities will
compromise with your stature as a teacher and students might not take you
seriously. Here is the trick for your
first class. Don’t recapitulate from the previous year; teach something that is
brand new. Give a home assignment on it (the online research one mentioned
above). You will be able to make an intellectual engagement with them.
Also share with them the year’s learning goals and outcomes that are
expected of them. Make the grading and homework policies transparent to them.
Plan day by day at least for the first month
Planning for each day of the first month takes out most of the
stress. Most importantly you will get ample time to take up each of the above
activities and create a positive environment for the whole year to fall in
place!
Best of luck for the new session and happy teaching!
Unified
Learning’s rich multi-media content are great brain teasers engaging a child
intellectually. To get a free demo of these, write in to us at info@unilrn.com.
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