First Day of School

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Everyone has their own little routines for the start of school and my vary depending upon what class it is. I teach Algebra One (advanced students 9th grade), Applied Algebra One (lower level students, 10th grade) and PreCalculus (advanced students 11th & 12th grade). 

All my students get information sheets about their class (pretty much required by our school) that they and a parent read and both sign and it comes back to school. I check off that they have been signed and then I have students keep these sheets in their notebooks.

I don't read these sheets word for word in class. We go over the basics and the higher the level class (and older the students) means less we go over and more I expect they will read on their own. It gets really boring for these kids to have every teacher in every class go over class details. Instead I make it quick, expect them to read it more carefully at home and then jump into what we are doing for the day. 

Here are my information sheets for the 2015-2016 school year.

I also do a quick introduction to my room layout and over the next week or two remind them where they find different things in the room, the bathroom sign out procedure and what to do when they are absent. I know that getting comfortable with each other takes a few weeks and they can't absorb everything on the first day. 

I should back up a bit.....When students come into my classroom I have a welcome message on my board that instructs them to pick a seat but that every table set up should have only 4 seats filled (fifth set empty). I have my desks arranged in groups of 5.  On each desk there will be a packet of materials for each student. Only my PreCalculus classes will have textbooks they are signing out.

The class information sheet noted above. I print those in color so they stand out in student notebooks among all the papers they get on the first day of school.

Each student will get an information sheet to fill in. 

A math autobiography assignment

and a website investigation sheet.

These last two have specific due dates (at some point in the next two weeks). The math autobiography assignment is really great. Students are very honest about their abilities and attitudes in math. It gives you some very good insight into who your students are at the start of school. It's fun to read them at the end of the school year too after you've worked with your students all year. 

Once we go over all that paperwork and the expectations for the day we get into what are doing for the day.

PreCalculus we actually jump right into a lesson, that will be a later blog. (these are advanced students that are in 11th and 12th grade, they are used to working hard and living up to high expectations so I get them back in that mode right away).

For my Algebra classes we do a fun activity such as 31-nderful from Sarah on her Everybody is a Genius blog post First Day. 

Sarah says:

The kids are allowed to look through the deck and choose whatever cards they want.  I go over the rules using the slides above, but I offer no suggestion on strategy because I want to see what they do.  The groups that put some forethought into it and use a strategy are inevitably more successful.  Kids that go one card at a time will usually end up with one empty spot where no card will fit.  This will then send them backwards to try to adjust. 

Over the years I've done a lot of different things, but what I'm looking for is for students to do some math that is fun, a little challenging and requires some thought and creativity.

I recently found this blog post on 

Reflections of a High School Math Teacher

 for the first three days of school. Some very cool things here. Most I can't do because we don't have that level of technology in our classroom (sigh, I see stuff like this and think we are the most backward school system sometimes - teachers are doing wonderful things with technology, we just don't have the money). 

Anyhow, what I would like to use are #s 2, 4, 5, 6 & 9. I like #14 a lot too! Here are what some of the topics look like.

#2 Partner Questions

4. GRIT Discussion

GRIT Video:  http://www.ted.com/talks/angela_lee_duckworth_the_key_to_success_grit?language=en

Take the GRIT SCALE Quiz:  https://sasupenn.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_06f6QSOS2pZW9qR  or http://tinyurl.com/quizgrit    If you want to look at the questions again click here.  Or go to http://tinyurl.com/gritquestions

Read the article:  http://www.edutopia.org/blog/true-grit-measure-teach-success-vicki-davis?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=socialflow%20&utm_campaign=RSS

#5 Brain Break 1

#6 Estimation activity

This comes from the blog Estimation 180 and is perfect for my algebra classes. I will have a little glass custard cup of almonds on each table in my room (covered in plastic wrap so no one helps themselves to one or tries to dump them out and count them). They won't be allowed to handle the cup much, maybe hold it for 5 seconds to look at it. Then they will estimate.

He's created a google form to record student responses. You can do that too. I just went to google forms and created a set of questions. I'll post that on my school website for students to access. Check it out here. And here is what it looks like on my website. (see August 24 on the calendar)

there is another estimation activity using hot chocolate and marshmallows. Something to do with my Algebra classes right before Christmas break!  Check out a future blog post. 

#9 Brain Break 2

I would also do a Remind.com activity to get my Applied Algebra One class set up for getting text reminders. Will post a blog entry on that soon!

Then I do jump right into some work - our first unit in Algebra One is Patterns & Sequences. So they get a pattern worksheet to do for homework and the next class we start right in!  (see blog post June 28, 2015 Algebra One Sequences).