Classroom Engagement Ideas for the 1st Day of School
“You can discover more about a person in an hour of play, than in a year of conversation.”- Plato
Classroom engagement is always such a hard topic to talk about, especially now that the world of teaching has changed. Engagement on Zoom can be difficult, if not impossible. It’s easy for students to get distracted and do a zillion other things while “listening” to your lecture.
If you’re looking for a different way to connect and help with engagement in your classroom, you definitely want to check your mindset when it comes to teaching. Has it been overwhelming moving to online school, so you’re being a bit checked out with everything (makes sense- I can totally relate to this as daily changes happen)? Are you fully engaged in your class, quickly answering emails and questions, and giving good feedback to their students? It has been so hard these last few semesters, and many teachers feel that they’re back to being a 1st year teacher again.
For the first week of school or first day of class, why not mix it up and get to know your students just a bit differently? Filming a quick video is always helpful for an online class to get to know each other and actually see and hear a class member, but sometimes can be cumbersome to upload a video. Check out www.flipgrid.com, a super easy way to upload videos and watch other people’s as well, all in one place.
Another way to connect with your students, but definitely takes more time, is to set up 5 minute Zoom chats with each student individually. Create a Sign up Genius with a few different times and dates for your students to sign up on and email out the Zoom link. Definitely keep yourself to the time limit (even set an alarm on your phone when you need to get off for the next chat) to show you respect their time as a student. Ask a few get to know you questions, or turn it into an informal “pretest” asking some questions about the class content for the semester.
How are you making this first week of school different and better than last semester? We’d love to hear from you! What do you like to do to connect and engage with your students from day 1?