Kids are Kids: All Set! Back to School Basics

Setting up my classroom in Korea, I tried to anticipate a lot of my students' needs so that we could start the year strong. Here are some pieces I made sure to include:

1. Class Rules

We brainstormed ideas together and then consolidated them into the following four rules. As a teacher who sees the whole school, making collective class rules can seem intimidating, but I found that some guiding questions allowed me to take students' ideas into account while still ultimately creating only one set of rules for the English classroom. The first few weeks, we have been reading the rules as each class begins.

2. Habits of Discussion

Before school started, I tried to think of reasonable expectations for habits of discussion in the classroom. I wanted to elevate my students' language skills while still meeting them at their current ability. I decided on "silent signals" to increase class participation, a phrase of the week for conversational practice, and conversation skills to work on throughout the year. I plan on teaching signals for each of the conversation skills so that students can remind each other to make eye contact or speak loudly.

3. Behavioral Supports:

I have been working on setting expectations consistently to eliminate conflict in the classroom. I made a "noise-o-meter" to manage student volume during activities, and chose "give me 5" as my attention-getter this year because it gives students some time to finish their work or conversation before pausing and also makes expectations for listening very clear.

4. Community-building decorations!

I found these amazing diversity posters buried in a closer in the classroom when I arrived (thanks Elaine or Micia?) and immediately put them up. If anything, I think that adding your own decorations to the classroom makes you feel more comfortable as the educator. Then, during the first week, I had all of my club class students make puzzle pieces with pictures and phrases that described them and then we assembled them on the wall. (They made it into a heart on their own!) The theme was "We all fit together perfectly" and though I think the language was lost on them I hope the sentiment wasn't. This week I also added little superheroes with "I can..." statements that the first graders made this week. I hope they feel proud when they see them and a little more invested in the space.