Friday, July 31, 2015

First Day of School.  Assigned Seats?  ¡Sí, Señor!

This is a part of my classroom management that I have used for 20 years.  It really works and sets the tone from the first day that:  1) You, the teacher have things under control.  2) Students get to work on the bell ringer right away.  3) There will be structure in the lesson plan.    You may purchase this template on my TpT store  here.


I first learned of this gem of an idea for classroom management from Harry Wong's book, The First Days of School.  (I HIGHLY recommend this book for first-year teachers!)  I decided to give it a try and came up with this Power Point that is displayed on the screen as students walk in on the first day.


                                                                  


There is a slide that greets the students.  You may edit it to your name and class.  


I purchase these small stickers, write the numbers on them (1-30+) and stick them on the desks in the order I want them.  This works for classes in rows, groups, or however you want to set it up.  After the first week or so, the stickers might start to peel off, or you might take them off.  But, by then, students already know where their seat is.  Usually on the first day, I will just assign the students to the number that they are on my attendance roster.  This makes it very easy to take roll as it is usually alphabetical (but you can mix it up to your style.)


                                                                 




Students will look at the screen, note the number next to their name, and find their seat.  (You might have to add a note about extra seats available for students whose names are not on the list due to being added last minute.) 


You can make it a little more challenging for the language student by spelling out the number on the screen in the target language.  This way, they are using the language from the moment they walk in the door!  (This is editable to any language!)


It may take a little extra time to type in each student's name, but it is worth it and you will be very familiar with their names ahead of time.

In order to get students working on the bell ringer right away, I usually hand them a student questionaire on the first day as they walk in the door.  So, I greet them, give them the hand out, and then they walk in and find their seat.

¡Buena suerte!  Please let me know your feedback on this.


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