Thanks for joining me again for this week of the book study. First off let me apologize about leaving last week without a new blog post. I have started my new job as an Instructional Technology Specialist at Elgin High School, in Elgin TX. Also I took a trip to Iowa see my new nephew, pack up the old house, and finally move into a new house, so the new blog post was put on the back burner.
This week is about Rapport. There are many words that can be used with rapport like trustworthiness, relationships, and character. My favorite definition for character "Is doing what is right when no one else is looking". The first week of this book study I ask you all to share your one word about teaching. Many of you all used words like relationships, respect, and patience all of these lead to rapport with your students. Many of our students come to school without a solid adult in their life, or someone they can count on to be there for them. A little extra time in class, in the hallway, or around town will will help you build this rapport with your students, and increase their ability to learn in your classroom.
In this chapter, Dave talks of his first 3 days of school. He says these 3 days are the most important of the entire school year. Harry Wong wrote a book called First Days of School, where he writes about the importance of these first few days as well. This book has been even adopted by many universities as education textbook. What I want to know is, how do you build rapport with your students during the first days of school. Share your best practices, techniques, games, and plans for when we head back few weeks. Be sure to include the #SummerTLAP in your tweets and your posts so we can all follow along and learn together. I look forward to learning with you, and discussing some great ideas that I know you have.
As always, if you are WISD employee here is the link to the Google Form, for book study credit. Anyone is free to fill this form out, but it's required for WISD employees for credit.
On the first day of school I share with my students information about myself. I tell them what I like to do on my free time, tell them about my family, and why I am a teacher. I make it a point to never talk to them about the work they will be doing the upcoming year because I want them to see that I am a human being and not just a robot up in the front teaching them English. Next, I have them create a About Me Circle listing what they love to do on their free time, what they enjoy doing, and etc. They then present them to me and the class. I end up using their About Me Circles as a "name tag" on their journals. I feel like starting off the school year getting a personal connection with my students helps maintain a good rapport throughout the school year.
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