Making
the First Day Picture Perfect
By: Kathleen O'Rahilly
A lot of teachers have difficulty
getting their students engaged on the
first day of class. This is especially
difficult when the agenda is to cover
the rules of the classroom, rather than
running around which most students are
anxious to do. So Jan Perkins, who teaches
at Spanish Fork Middle School in Utah,
has suggested an alternative way to
go over the guidelines for the rest
of the year, which she feels to be quite
engaging to the students. This method
requires planning, and may be something
that you will have to start preparing
for now for next year, rather than beginning
this in September.
Through the course of the school year
teachers, or their students, can take
pictures of other students who are participating
in a wide range of activities that are
engaged in throughout the year. You
may even spice up the photos with graphics
by including some fun cartoons and clipart.
If you use a digital camera the pictures
can be uploaded to the computer instantly,
rather than pay a cost and waiting period
for film developement, and then having
to scan the photos. Once you have your
pictures taken, your display can be
placed on to a PowerPoint presentation,
which you can add audio clips to, such
as "jock-jams," or you can
separately use a CD or cassette player
rather than adding the music files to
the slides.
The power point can be projected onto
a larger surface so that all students
can view it while you explain what is
happening in the slides. You are not
limited to activities that the students
have engaged in; you may cover almost
any topic that needs to be covered in
this fashion. For example, you may point
out the appropriate dress code by having
children model the clothing in the photographs.
This is a fun experience for the students
who get to be photographed, as well
as for those who get to view the photographs.
If you wish, you may do separate presentations
for each individual grade so that they
are viewing photographs of themselves
and their friends from the year before.
For those individuals who are new to
the school, this is also an opportunity
for them to get a glimpse of all of
the fun activities that they will get
a chance to play, as well as hopefully
relieving any possible anxiety that
they may have regarding your class.
In order to insure that students have
retained the material which was covered,
an assessment quiz can be administered
approximately two weeks later. After
the slideshow is finished Jan Perkins
usually finishes the day off with an
exercise which allows her and other
students to get to know each other,
which works as an icebreaker for all
members of the class.
Amanda Chambers, who teaches at Glendale
Elementary, has also made use of similar
technology throughout the school year
in a comparable way. She had her students
take pictures of their partners engaging
in a variety of soccer skills. The students
were then asked to present their pictures
to the class using a media medium, and
among the media possibilities was a
PowerPoint presentation. While she did
not mention using this exercise to introduce
her future students to her class, it
would appear that the projects from
the students of previous years could
be presented to her new students on
the first day of class. By “recycling"
the students' projects you could exhibit
them on the first day of class, allowing
them to demonstrate many of the topics
which need to be covered, such as proper
uniform and an example of an activity
which they will engage in later. While
this method would not necessarily contain
as many of the topics which you wish
to cover, as did the other method, it
will require less time on your part
for preparation.
Another similar activity involving
photos was suggested by Sharon Welch,
who teaches at Potowmack Elementary
School. In her class she places pictures
of different skills, which the children
have already learned, on rolling mats
on the floor. The skills she typically
includes are the forward rocker, backward
rocker, bunny jump, frog jump, forward
roll, backward roll, egg roll, log roll,
pencil roll, and mule kick. The mats
are laid out with enough space between
them to allow for safe movement. The
students are then instructed to move
between the mats by skipping until the
music stops. If you still have the "jock
jams" cd which you used during
the slideshow, the CD would be an excellent
music selection for this activity.
Once the music stops the children stop,
& in groups of approximately three
they will perform the activity which
is presented in the picture. You may
take this opportunity to take pictures
of your students engaging in the task,
as well as to reuse pictures from last
year which had been used in the slideshow
on the first day of class to introduce
the topic.
This method of spicing up the first
day of class proved to be effective
in Jan Perkins class of 6th graders.
However this idea seems like one which
kids of all ages would find more engaging
than the standard lecture. As you can
see, this appears to be an activity
which would be easy & fun to prepare
for. So why not give it a try, and let
us know how it works for you!
webmaster note:
If you decide to use any of these activities,
or anything similar, please send me
an email with photos attached to coveyte@cwu.edu.
I will feature them on pelinks4u
with a link to this article.
Information for this article was provided
by :
http://www.pecentral.org/lessonideas/ViewLesson.asp?ID=5868
http://www.pecentral.com/lessonideas/ViewLesson.asp?ID=4588
http://www.pecentral.com/lessonideas/ViewLesson.asp?ID=689
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