After an entire summer of being away sometimes it's hard to get back into the swing of things with your teammates. The beginning of the school year is filled with deadlines, meetings, trainings, oh and did I mention the trainings?! Often we can lose sight of why we are there. We get so caught up in the deadlines and routines we forget that we are there to facilitate growth in our students. What better way to do that than to grow a little bit ourselves?
As we geared up for back to school we built in a little team building time, not just with our grade level teams but with the entire faculty. We focused on one key idea...What memories will you make this year? Our teachers started out talking at their tables about memories they made when they were in school, favorite teachers, key skills as well as unique and engaging lessons. They wrote these thoughts on the back of a star cutout.
After about 10 minutes of discussion time the teachers were divided into groups based on the color bandana they chose. (We had them grab one at the door when they headed into our first faculty meeting.) We then had all of the teachers talk about their time and experiences in teaching. What memories have you made with past students? Did you plan special field trips, outings, lessons or novels to read? What made learning engaging in your class? This led to some great discussions from veteran teachers as well as the newbies. The conversation got started and it was a big one. We often don't find the time to interact with our peers at school because we hustle around making sure we check everything off of our already busy lists. We rarely have time to just talk and learn from one another.
After 15 minutes of collaborating and discussing our teachers made their way to their final group. This time they needed to make a small group that had one of each bandana color (there were 8). This helped divide up those teachers that generally stick together and don't venture beyond their comfort zone. On the back of their star we asked the teachers to write down one memory they would like to make with their students this year; a special unit study, a unique lesson, a new field trip. We encouraged everyone to think about something innovative and fun that they hadn't done in previous years. We were left with a room full of ideas and got the conversation started about how to make learning a fun, engaging and memorable process. Our teachers were well on their way to a new and exciting school year.
Throughout the year we will be checking in with our teachers as they make memories with their students and light that spark to create lifelong learners. As each memory is made they will be adding their bright stars to a bulletin board in the cafeteria where everyone can see all of the new and exciting activities that make our school such a fun place to be!
See how I carried this camping theme into my classroom with a themed reading corner and bulletin board.
