Shen Lei, English teacher at Nanjing Zhiyuan Junior High School
Personal public number: Shen Lei's class teacher's handwriting
When you think of the new semester registration, do you feel depressed and inactive like me? This is the rumored holiday/post-holiday syndrome! (Abbreviation: Self-inflicted illness!) The start of school is not terrible, the terrible thing is the "waiting for the school to start" days.
Today, I would like to talk about how to heat up the new semester from the ice-breaking activities on the first day of school.
Many teachers have carefully designed the ice-breaking activities for the new semester, and some have even upgraded to the opening course or the opening ceremony, but the attempt has not achieved the expected effect, the students have not entered the state, and the teachers are embarrassed to talk to themselves.
Why? I thought that I did not deeply analyze my class situation and student characteristics before the design of the activity, and it was difficult to play the role of education after breaking the ice (activities/courses/rituals) of the wonderful opening of the school (activities/courses/ceremonies) without the design of the activities.
How should we design an ice-breaking school with teacher-style characteristics and in line with the situation of the students in the class? Let's start by answering the following questions:
What kind of emoticons will you choose to use?
Why did you choose such an emoticon?
Can you guess the mood of the students? You can give it a try with the kids at home.
Why do we (teachers and students) have such tangled emotions?
Behind this emotion, there are not only the joy of starting school, the joy of seeing teachers and peers, the impulse to share their own experience and winter vacation life, the expectation of unknown development, but also the pressure of not completing homework seriously, the tension of facing the academic challenges of the new semester, and the uncertainty of worrying about their future.
Behind the emotions are everyone's instinctive needs. Starting from the psychological needs of teachers and students, the ice-breaking design can produce real interaction and improve the motivation level of teachers and students at the beginning of the new semester.
If we take icebreaking as the "first lesson of school", let's first analyze its background:
We should be sensitive to the fact that new educational opportunities will emerge at the beginning of the semester.
Combined with the background of the beginning of the school year, let's set the goal of breaking the ice.
Let's first look at some universal preparations, regardless of grade or semester, must be prepared.
On the basis of common preparation, we began to dig deeper into resources (student resources, teacher resources, parent resources).
Think about your students, or close your eyes and think about you and your students living and studying at school. Then, to answer this question:
01 Start with winter vacation life
Life is education, extracting the elements and motivation for growth from the excitement of holiday life.
Make a vlog for a class. Invite students who are good at information technology in the class to edit a short video of 3-5 minutes, then in the first lesson, you can use a short time to let all students pay attention to our different wonderful holidays.
Let the differences between students become a resource for education. We want to take advantage of the peculiarities of student holidays living in different fields to create a gap in shared information.
For the Local New Year, cancel the travel plan, reduce the Number of Visits, and students must have a new way to spend the winter vacation. So let's share it! With such sharing, we will understand each other's lives, so that we can get closer and learn from each other.
When sharing, students can express themselves around three areas:
◎What was done and how it was done;
◎What are the feelings and what kind of harvests are there;
◎What experience can be provided to students for reference.
The students' sharing was enough to surprise us!
In addition to being curious about the holiday life of their peers, students also want to know how the teachers spend their winter vacation, how to celebrate the New Year with their families, how to prepare for the new semester, whether they need to prepare for classes, whether they have time to develop their hobbies... These are all topics of interest to students.
Teachers share their true practices and feelings, and appear in the lives of students with a real growth posture, which is an impact on students and a silent exemplary force.
Whether it is the sharing between students or the interviews between teachers and students, the expression from life helps us to upgrade our winter vacation experience and internalize it into future habits and lifestyles.
When we move the most realistic life scene into the first lesson of the school year, we build a bridge between the holidays and the new semester. It is not only the opening of the school in the concept of time and space, but also a smooth transition in psychology.
02 Value the evaluation of teamwork
The most direct impact of the pandemic on student growth, including winter and summer vacations, has been to strengthen the interconnectedness of relationships. People must intersect and then generate team resources, so a community must be formed.
With the experience of online learning last year, before the winter vacation this year, most of the teachers re-strengthened the student groups in the class: or arranged special holiday homework for group cooperation, or designed online group interaction sharing and exchange activities, which also contributed to the inevitable occurrence of cooperation between students.
Teamwork also forms a unique growth mechanism of mutual supervision and urging in small groups. In addition to relying on their strong sense of purpose and execution, students' autonomy, self-awareness and self-discipline during the holidays also require mutual supervision and mutual encouragement between small partners. The use of the Internet to establish a network connection of classes helps to follow up the process of students' holiday life and avoid the negative impact of excessive disorder.
Before the start of the semester, the team leader can take the lead and carry out cooperative evaluation. Group selection can also be carried out in the class, resulting in a series of commendations such as outstanding team leaders, excellent team members, excellent planning, etc., and awards are given when the ice is broken, and experience exchange is carried out to improve the effectiveness of the group.
Highlight the results of the group or reproduce the cooperation process in an interactive way, and give students the opportunity to write and direct themselves, and I believe that their cooperation will definitely make everyone shine.
03 Sketch out the blueprint for the new semester
The expectation of beauty stems first and foremost from the recognition of reality. Students with a sense of purpose and direction are more likely to plan themselves at the starting point. Teachers should release a "trailer" for the new semester on the first day of school.
How to release the "Growth Trailer"? I suggest starting from the following three aspects:
◎What kind of new challenges will be encountered in learning (invite the classroom teacher to introduce);
◎ How to change in physical and mental growth (including mood, stress, physiology, etc.);
◎With the promotion of learning and growth, what kind of activities will be organized by the school and the class, and what courses will be offered to help students adapt (combined with the school's new semester plan and class development plan).
Taking the second grade of the junior high school where I teach as an example, the overall academic difficulty has increased greatly, and the requirements for students' comprehension, memory, spatial strength, and logic have been significantly enhanced compared with the previous semester, combined with the textbooks of various subjects to concisely explain the difficulties of this semester, and clearly put forward the learning requirements, which is the necessary content of the first lesson of the school year. The physical and mental changes of students this semester will be more obvious, especially in the spring and summer, and the stress values and parent-child relationship tension will also escalate rapidly. These problems are inevitable, so it is more necessary to plan in advance and tell students frankly, face them with them, and take positive action.
With such a trailer, under moderate challenge and pressure, students' initiative is more likely to be stimulated.
Don't forget to use more positive expressions to convey the new atmosphere of the new semester. For example, write a sincere confession letter, send a "lollipop" candy full of meaning, adjust a class seat to promote group cooperation, and train the class committee... Express your trust and expectations for students in a way you are familiar with and guide them in planning for the new semester.
Take advantage of the effect of a new starting point, and a good start will be achieved.
The specific form and material can also refer to the following:
Never underestimate your own growth resources!
With the start of school imminent, hurry up and take action, make full use of winter vacation resources, do a good job of breaking the ice for the new semester, and let the full and interesting work reduce the uneasiness before the start of the school. Let's go!
Proofread by Li Haihui
Source: Purple Cow News