Annie Forest

IT'S HERE!!! If you are like me, you feel a little sad about the end of summer but also super excited for a new school year. I love the new school supplies, fresh start, classroom decorating , meeting new kids, and a chance to try new things! I wanted to put together a post that compiled all of my favorite past posts related to stuff teachers think about at the start of a new school year. First, I like to sit down and write out my goals . I think about what I want to keep and what I might want to change . There are several things that you might have done in the past that you might want to rethink. For example, grading , getting rid of your teacher desk , or even how you speak about gender in your classroom . How are you going to arrange your classroom? How will you make seating charts that encourage collaboration ? Think about small changes you could make that will have a big impact. Here are a few . Think about how you might want to treat mistakes in your clas

One way to introduce yourself to a new group of students is to do "Me In Numbers."* Here's how it works:  1. Make up a few questions about yourself. List the numbers (out of order) at the bottom. Have some easy to figure out and others that could be several of the options. For example, my daughter is probably not 38 or 1884 years old... but she could be 2, 3, or 14.  2. Display to the class and have them right down their guesses for each statement. Each number at the bottom is used once. (sometimes I like to set it up that they are going to have a "quiz" on this first day. I have a smile on my face so they don't get too nervous, and then obviously when I show them they questions they know it's not a graded quiz but just for fun). 3. Go over the answers as they "grade" their work. As you go over the answers, share a bit about yourself. I usually have a slide or two to go with each answer with some pictures of my family, cats