MWSubstack 017: First Days; Routines
Tap into students' excitement about being back at school – hit the ground running with some fun and challenge before you roll out the rules.
Welcome to MiddleWeb Substack. It’s a twice-monthly, two-topic, five-minute read for middle grades educators, featuring a selection of MiddleWeb’s most popular and influential articles, a book review, and a noteworthy 4-8 resource or project we’ve spotted. That’s it!
►THE FIRST DAYS OF SCHOOL
They’re back! Tap into their excitement.
Most students are excited to get back to school but anticipate lots of rules and mundane tasks to begin the year, writes Curtis Chandler. Which prompts him to wonder: Why not hit the ground running? Check out his ideas for creating a good first impression with plenty of fun, challenge, and learning in How Can We Improve the First Days of School?
More early-days advice from our MiddleWeb contributors:
Building Relationships with Kids from Day One
By putting strong relationships at the fore, you can cultivate an environment where all kids can grow. Stephanie Farley has hit upon keys to encourage students to thrive.
A Million Words: A great start-of-school activity with parents.
The Million Words activity can be a wonderful way to connect with parents, if it’s done right. A MiddleWeb classic about strengthening your connections with parents and guardians.
Creating an Inviting Classroom Environment
Barbara Blackburn shares ideas we can use to create a learning space that’s positive for all students, builds strong relationships, and offers a happy place to be.
Kids Need Us to Keep These Promises
What promises do we need to make so middle schoolers truly believe they’ll be safe and cared for in our classrooms? Here are 25 pledges that have the most impact.
The 7 Questions Your Middle School Students Ask First
First day routines evolve over the years, says Cheryl Mizerny, but she's found that addressing 7 questions most students bring to class will help them feel welcome and excited about learning.
Regie Routman “believes that we are most fully ourselves when ‘teaching, learning, and living are interwoven and seamlessly integrated.’ To show us this full self, she shares stories that might help us navigate our own worlds.“ – Read Sarah Cooper’s review of The Heart-Centered Teacher.
►ROUTINES & PROCEDURES
Set the stage for a great year.
By staying true to your personality and developing routines that proactively eliminate your sources of stress, you and your students will have a happier, more productive year. Cheryl Mizerny shares some favorite procedures that work in her tween classroom in her post Make Life Easier with Good Class Procedures. And you'll find more here:
Six Quick Tips for Effective Math Class Norms (Geoff Krall)
Reassuring Routines Build Student Confidence (Kelly Owens)
Helping New Teachers Manage Their Students (Sharon Ratliff)
Supplies: The Fallacy of Kids Being ‘Prepared’ (Dina Strasser)
►ELSEWHERE
What do grades really tell us about student learning?
Middle and high schools need to do a better job aligning grading practices with learning goals, say the authors of a new large-scale research project. The study of about 33,000 middle school and high school grades found that almost 60% of the students’ grades did not match the course knowledge they showed. This story at K-12 Dive explores the negative effects of both grade inflation and deflation.
►OUR BOOK REVIEW
Teaching Beyond the Timeline: Engaging Students in Thematic History by China Harvey and Lisa Herzig.
Harvey and Herzig show how to make history more relevant, exciting and connected to the present by using thematic history that integrates chronology. The book, Sarah Cooper writes, "is so well structured, so thoughtfully scaffolded, so filled with logistical and aspirational ideas, that I found myself jotting increasingly urgent notes in the margins about my own class." Read the complete review.
►REVIEW FOR US!
Browse our complete list of free professional books available for review.
►NEXT TIME
One of the great teacher mentors – Julia G. Thompson – centers much of her advice around this prime directive: establish a strong classroom community and culture. And for teachers preparing to weave science, math and engineering into project learning, we’ll share a blueprint for launching STEM.
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