Comments on: What Do You Do on the First Day of School?

By: Corinne Muir

Corinne Muir — Tue, 08 Aug 2017 15:34:26 +0000

For the fist day of school, I like to use some problems that would require students to work in groups and have them solve on the windows or whiteboards because it gets them up and moving. They also have to create their own word problem and go and solve another group’s.

By: Co-Authoring Your Classroom – dy/dan

Co-Authoring Your Classroom – dy/dan — Mon, 07 Aug 2017 23:42:52 +0000

[…] with your students on day one. Great advice. We crowdsourced loads of ideas for those math tasks last year. Please add more […]

By: How Not To Start Math Class in the Fall | Becoming the Math Teacher You Wish You'd Had

Fri, 06 Jan 2017 04:08:31 +0000

[…] are many wonderful ways to kick off math. I’ll say it again to give room for a second collection: there are many wonderful ways to […]

By: Dan Meyer

Dan Meyer — Tue, 21 Jun 2016 00:24:49 +0000

Tina Cardone is way ahead of us.

By: Xavier Bordoy

Xavier Bordoy — Tue, 14 Jun 2016 20:38:48 +0000

With the perspective of students of boring classes:
– sitting
– say “yes” in attend list
– presentation of Mr X: name, email, etc.
– Mr X says to us that his topic is subject is the best of the world.

What do students do in first day in school *in interesting class*?

By: Laura

Laura — Tue, 14 Jun 2016 15:20:22 +0000

Changes year to year, but here are the must-haves for my first day activity these days in Math:
– problem-based learning (even better if it’s 3 act math style w/ a hands-on data collection/measuring component)
– students placed in visibly random groups
– groups solving on vertical non-permanent surfaces
All of which sets the tone for the most important routines & structures in my class for the semester.

By: Sandra Baggett

Sandra Baggett — Mon, 13 Jun 2016 19:50:38 +0000

7th and 8th grade:
Use four 4s to make equations equal to each number 1 thru 20. I also introduce a growth mindset. I use material from youcubed.org

By: John Chapin

John Chapin — Sun, 12 Jun 2016 13:31:57 +0000

Don’t forget that the students want to know something about you too! I stole this from the teacher of the year here in VA:

PICK THE LIE: He would put a slide up on the board with cool/crazy/interesting things he had done (run the Boston marathon, went on a 10 day dogsled trip) with one of them made up and ask the students to pick out which one was made up.

Different things stand out for different students, but they remember things from the slide. It’s great becomes it gives the students hooks to start to get to know you.

John

By: Glenn Waddell

Glenn Waddell — Sat, 11 Jun 2016 23:30:54 +0000

This is what I did for several years. No syllabus, no sitting there listening to me, just a project, deep thinking, and hands on.

http://blog.mrwaddell.net/archives/1020

By: Chester Draws

Chester Draws — Sat, 11 Jun 2016 07:37:21 +0000

HL — very similar to you. We get into it straight away, because I want to set an expectation that Maths is about Maths.

That said I almost always end those initial periods with something different. They aren’t yet back into concentrating for long periods, so we wind down a bit early.