What I Wish My Teacher Knew About Me

Over half way through the year, and now working as a job share (with each other incidentally), we decided to ask the children to write down something they wanted us to know. We've gotten to know them quite well, some more than others, but there's always more to find out. 

Some wrote down things we already knew, others wrote about school or home, and some were really surprising:

- a boy whose parents have separated;

- a child who had recently overcome a fear;

- someone who had taken up a new sport;

- a girl who pointed out she'd like us to stop getting her name wrong.

So, if you get 5 minutes, ask your class, "What would you like your teacher to know about you?" 

It'd make a really good transition day activity, first day of term task or, as we did just ad hoc...

Emoji Autobiographies

Getting to know your class at the start of the year can take many forms. Both of us are now part of job shares where we only teach for part of the week. Here's something that one of our classes did with one of our inventive colleagues...

Half the battle of getting children to write is engaging them. As we've written about before, the emoji keyboard can create engagement in writing. This task was for the children to write about themselves and insert emojis for some of the nouns in their sentences.

Transition Activities

Again, inspired by a Tweet:

Any great transition activities/games?

— Miss Trainee (@NQT_Miss) 13 June 2016

We couldn't answer in 140 characters, so we'll answer in a blog post...

On our transition day, we get our new year group for just over two hours. Lots of time to get to know them a bit and learn a little about them. We do a short maths activity, a short writing activity and do lots of 'getting to know you' activities. 

'Getting to Know You a Little' - Children roll a dice and answer a question based upon what number they roll. For example: 1 Something you enjoyed about this year. 2 Favourite colour. -> 6 Dream job.

Share the curriculum for the year ahead. Let the children know what they'll be studying. They may even do some pre-learning. 

Trips. Again similar to above, let the children know what trips they can expect. 

Read letters from my current class to the next. 

'The Hardest Test You'll Do All Year' (Getting to Know Me a Little) - I give each table four pictures. For example: sweetcorn, peas, carrots and broccoli. They need to work out which is the odd one out and why. Always some interesting answers and then I explain the right answer. Can't stand sweetcorn by the way!

'Getting to Know You' - provide the children with a form to fill in so you, the teacher, have something to keep about them as you prepare for the year ahead.

Share a sideshow of photos from your current year.  

Look at your class / year group blog. 

'Just Like Me' - Someone says something they like or do and anyone who is the same/similar says, "Just like me".

There's some ideas. We really value transition day. Get to know the children a little. Make introductions. Set some expatiations. And, all before it begins 'for real' in September...