I am gearing up for the first day of school with students on Tuesday. As usual, I'll be laboring on Labor Day, putting the finishing touches on the room and preparing everything I didn't get to last week. My better half is a good sport and takes the kids to the local Labor Day parade, where they march with their preschool.
I brought some work home, and spent time today working on one of my favorite getting to know you activities. As we lead up to the first day, I speak to teacher who had my students last year and/or read my students' files. I'm not looking for academic experience, test scores, or behavioral track record. I'm looking for hobbies and interests.
Once I have a sense of one or more interests for each of my students (and hopefully many of them are overlaps), I select one per student and then search for an image that represents that hobby or interest.* I print and laminate the image and post them on the doors to the cabinet just inside the classroom. One of our first activities on the first day, is that I explain to the students that there are 16 of them and 16 images. Each image needs a partner and then need to figure out who should get which image. My only other instruction is that no one can be forced to take an image to which they don't relate. Each year there are a few images that end up with someone different than the student I initially had in mind. Two years ago I had a student very upset with the image that was clearly selected for her and so we selected a different one together.
It is so much fun to overhear the conversations and to watch them learn about each other, even those who have been in school together for years. While first day jitters clearly play a factor, I learn so much about them from the get-go - negotiating skills, who is assertive, who sits back and lets others take over (in addition to the obvious discussions of who has shared interests).
A week or two later we do a fairly generic Homeroom Scavenger Hunt, where they have to get each person in the homeroom to sign a different box on their page. Options include things like, "It takes me over 30 minutes to get to school," "I sometimes speak a language other than English at home," "I am a night own," and other similar statements. I am careful to avoid statements that might imply valuing one situation over another, and almost everything has an equally positively phrased counter point.
Last year I discovered a wonderful new activity, called the GoBo Window. It was created by Rodney Glasgow (Director of Diversity at Worcester Academy) and a second educator, whose name I did not catch. Students fold a paper in half (hot dog style) and, while still folded, fold it in half again to make a square. Unfold the second fold (so now it is hot dog style with a crease down the middle) so you have two external squares and two internal squares (when you lift the flap). On the left external square students write the prompt, "You may know that I ..." and on the right external square they write, "You may think that I ...". Lift the flap and, on the left internal square facing you, students write the prompt, "You probably don't know that I ..." and on the right internal square the write, "You probably couldn't guess that I ...". The statements they use to complete each prompt must be true and can be as revealing as they want. I provide them with a sample window with examples about me and I then give them 3-4 minutes to complete the sentences. I then have them circulate the room until they have interacted with everyone else in the room, including me (I make a new one for the group activity). When they face a partner they hold up their own external window and silently read that of their partner. Once they have finished reading, each asks the partner, "Will you open your window?" They respond in the affirmative and then lift the flap to share the more revealing/interesting information on the inside. They are not allowed to comment on what they read, just say, "Thank you for sharing" to each other at the end and then find a new partner. Last year I did this in late-February, after attending the Friends Council on Education's Diversity Peer Network meeting, at which I participated in the GoBo Window activity. The students LOVED it! They were fascinated to see how much they didn't know about each other, even by February, and it gave them some new things to talk about.
I am apprehensive and excited to learn about my group of students this year, and hope they enjoy getting to know each other as much as I enjoy helping facilitate the process!
What are some of your favorite getting to know you activities? Please share them in the comments section!
*I now note the website sources of all images I use in my classroom.
