Teachers have reported for duty in our school district, and our students join us on Thursday. I am nervous and excited about this year. Our French numbers have dramatically increased and since I am the only teacher to teach level 1 and level 2, I have huge classes. It's a wonderful problem to have.
I have decided that from Day 2 I am going to continuously run my class with the integration of Kagan Cooperative Learning. On Day 1 and Day 2, I am going to include Team Building activities to get kids talking and moving. I figure if we first have fun, it will start us off on the right foot. So Day 1, we are doing a Six Degrees of Separation from Madame B, where students have to figure out who they know that also know me, and a Venn Diagram with their assigned partners for likes and dislikes.
Day 2, students will be assigned their groups for the next four weeks. In those groups, they will discuss things that they all like by doing a round robin share time, then decide on a group name. Then, in those groups, they will play triangle tag. To play triangle tag, three group members hold hands to create a triangle. The fourth person stands outside of the triangle and has to try to tag the person in the triangle that is furthest away, BUT the people in the triangle try to prevent that from happening. The group that goes the longest wins and has bragging rights.
I will include a lot of French in my explanations and encouragements for these days in order to be modeling target language as I go along. I am excited to see how it goes. I met my freshmen today and they are awesome!
My next task is to create a list of gambits, or positive reinforcements, to teach the students. I want a list of encouraging phrases that they can use to help each other. Hopefully, I will get that list together soon.
As your school year begins, good luck! Remember, we are in it for the kids. As I said in my Teacher of the Year, Back to School speech, we have the power to change lives each and every day. Let's do it!
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