School has started and it’s time to build relationships with my new students! Not only do I have 110 (hopefully) smiling faces in my classes, I also welcomed a new advisory – 19 Freshmen! Positive relationships with our students are so, so important. If I want my students to learn they must trust me first. Besides the usual get-to-know-you games, I decided to make a little slide show about me to introduce myself to my students – complete with photos of my childhood, high school, college, family, and teacher life at NHS. My advisory students seemed to really enjoy it. Their favorites of course were the awkward ones from my younger years and the ones with my students from previous years. I really felt it allowed the students to view me as more of a person and not this teacher who they think lives at the school lol

With my Chemistry classes I do this activity I call “Element of Me.” I came up with this activity when I didn’t want to do the same get-to-know-you activities that were being done in all of the other classes. In “Element of Me” students make an element square like the ones on the Periodic Table but with a little twist. See below for details!

Element name = their name

Element Symbol = a drawing of something they love

Atomic Number = Current Grade (9, 10 , 11, 12)

Atomic Mass = a number that is important to them

Whether you do something unique or the guaranteed-to-work activities, it’s incredibly important to build relationships with your students! If you can get your students to like you, they will be more willing to put forth the effort that will be required from them when the class gets hard.

Happy First Weeks of School!!!