Day 4: The First day of School

Yesterday my teacher asked me if I had read The First Days of School by Harry Wong. I know that I have heard that is is an excellent book, especially for first year teachers, but I haven't read it yet. But after seeing my teacher's classroom today... wow! I am going to read that book! She told me she got most of the stuff she did on the first day of school from that book.

She explicitly went through every procedure she wants her class to do, talked them through it before she let them even try. She did a lot of rewarding when people did what she wanted and a lot of warnings for when they didn't do what she wanted. The kids responded so well to the structure of her classroom. She also had the expectation that they knew what to do. And so they tried to live up to that expectation. It was beautifully done.

Also, I wanted to show you the bulletin boards we put up. This year her classroom theme is Jungle Safari. She rotates through a few different themes. Anyway, here are our boards.

I had to take a panoramic for this one so it is a little strange. And there is a monkey and a giraffe in the jeep.

These are the classroom rules. Self Starter. On Task. Active Listener. React. When ever we catch one of them doing one of these we give them a star and they put it on the letter of the one he did.