First days and Changing Times

I spent the last days of summer in nightmare hell having the GroundHog Day-like dreams where night after night, I am facing the first day of school, and I have not planned -- the students are eating me alive -- figuratively speaking of course. However, the first day came and went, and everything went as planned… yes I said planned because of course as a ten year teacher, I was more than ready unlike my counterpart from the other realm that haunted me.

And, though (thankfully) there were no "Revelations" level catastrophes, there were some small eye-opening moments that swung between “Oh, come on now, times have changed!” to “Oh my, how times have changed!”

In the “Oh, come on now, times have changed!” scenario, we were in our collaborative meeting planning for our first days. At our school, we have to teach the same standards at the same time, but can teach it anyway we wish. Now, I have one of the the sweetest co-workers who happens to love her worksheets of twenty years. She shared one that had a picture of a filmstrip with three blank squares on it.

Yes, I said “filmstrip”.

I raised an eyebrow and she must have seen it because she went on to say that although kids do not know what a filmstrip is, she uses it as a teaching opportunity. She shows them videos and images, of filmstrips, so she feels that she teaching a bit of history, too. So much for curriculum guides.

Now how does she use it in English, you ask? Well, she has them draw a picture in each of the three boxes, one was to illustrate how they felt before school, another was during the first day, and lastly, a week later. Next, they write a little bit about the picture beside it. So it is a reflective writing that guides them with chronology (I suppose). However, in today’s climate of Active Engagement, Personalized Learning, and Student Authenticity,-- well…?.

Now, in my own classroom... after three blocks with my students on the first day, I had an epiphany. I needed to take the splinter out of mine own eye!

Our first days consist of an extra long Homeroom leaving us with very short classes,with just enough time for a quick get-to-know you worksheet (like hers) and this is where my own problem started.

For a couple of years, I had been using this “great” first day worksheet called “Extra Extra, Read All About It!” And yes it looked like a newspaper. That in itself is a problem because though my worksheet theme may not have been obsolete... yet, most students still do not interact with them on a regular basis, thus they had no attachment to creating their own.

All I heard all day long was: “Do we have to?” "I did this in elementary!” “Do I really have to color it?”

I was floored. I thought it would be fun. That’s when I realized I was no different than my coworker. I do admit that I originally tried to find something current. I searched for Instagram worksheet templates, but all I found was a picture of a glorified square to draw in. The Snapchat was not much better. And Twitter simply had a small space for a blurb. Facebook did have a good template because it had much space and lot of profile questions to answer, however, everyone knows FB is for “Grandmas” these days so the kids are not too familiar with it, nor excited by it.

At any rate, I have realized that as much as we love social media, it is not conducive to learning English anymore. Everything is either written in short blurbs that can be taken out of context, written in abbreviated text-ese phrases, told through photos with blurbs, or a combination of these together with emojis taking the place of most words. There is just not a lot of writing for a fun first day English class template... heck there is not a lot of writing in real life, either.

Lastly, I had my students play an ice-breaker game called “Find Someone Who...” where they run around and find someone who likes to swim, has a brother, or likes math.

Do you know that out of three blocks and 75 students, only one of them wanted to be a teacher! I was slightly insulted. Everyone wanted to hold a “techie" job or play a sport. And to add salt-to-the wound was a young man who shared that he wanted to be a MLG.

I racked my brain trying to figure out which sport it was before some else asked what it stood for (I was too proud to do that myself). And his answer was -- a Major League Gamer!

That’s when I had had it. I put my hands on my hips, and announced with much attitude and a twinkle in my eye, “You may all want to be “techies” software engineers, basketball players, or designers, but someone has to teach you first!”

Oh my how times have changed! I thought while SMH (Shaking My head). ;-)