Did you miss the abcteach Back to School webinar? Are you looking for new ideas, materials, or tips from veteran educators? If so, then we’ve got you covered.
Monday’s presentation was led by team member, Kathy Butler, and abcteach founder, Sandy Kemsley, who share nearly 50 years of combined teaching experience. The interactive seminar, including a live Q&A, covered an hours worth of real-classroom examples for you to use in any learning environment. Look below for highlights from the 1st half of the presentation.
Key Topics Covered
- • Brainstorm Classroom Rules – Determine what’s appropriate for your class.
• Ex – Make a list based on students’ ideas: Talk softly, walk quietly, respect others, put supplies away, listen, be creative. Decide together what’s most important and create a poster.
- • Modeling Behaviors – Practice your classroom’s rules. What does it look and/or sound like? Who can model it?
• Ex – Saying “Hi” in a soft, normal, and loud voice. What’s appropriate when?
- • Get to Know Each Other – Discuss what makes you similar, yet individual (goals, interests, etc.). Get parents and teachers involved, too!
• Ex (lower elementary) – Graph your students hair and eye color, personal favorites, etc. Post your results. Now do the same with parents at beginning of the year teacher conferences.
• Ex (upper elementary) – Form small groups in your class and develop a survey of traits. Graph your results and discuss what you find. Depending on the grade level, have students calculate the percentages.
Topic Take-Home Points
- 1. It is important to establish a sense of classroom community early in the year. This promotes cooperation and respect among students.
- 2. Have the students model the behavior so they know what you expect. Show them and then let them practice.
- 3. Picture graphs, surveys, and interviews help students get to know each other and identify those with similar interests as well as unique talents. Post the classroom graphs for all to see. They not only enjoy seeing the results but it is a real life application of graph/data interpretation.
Related Sections on abcteach
Whether you’re back to class or heading in soon, we hope these tips start your new year off on the right foot. Stay tuned, the 2nd half of the webinar presentation – Multi-purpose Portfolios – will be coming soon.
Welcome Back!