D'Oh!  You Want Me to Do What?!?!

Yesterday at the Berea City School District opening day convocation for staff the challenge of teaching with your heart was thrown out.  I have always prided myself by doing just that and thanks to a colleague of mine the students participated in a great first day of school activity involving Play-Doh.

The first day of school traditionally involves teachers passing out a course syllabus, directions for Remind 101, going over class expectations, etc..  As I have done in the past, I broke away from traditions and involved the students in sculpting something they wanted their classmates to know about them.  I gave the students some ideas to help them process the directions and alleviate some of the anxiety they may have been feeling about the whole activity.  I even told them I'd participate and my first day was spent creating five different sculptures for each of my five classes.

Throughout the entire process, the students were engaged, laughing with each other and thoughtful in what they created.  What came out of the time spent sculpting and sharing were things about my students I would have never known if I hadn't given them the chance to share.  Here's what I learned about my students:

They like balls ... baseballs, basketballs, soccer balls, softballs, and footballs

Softball Player

Many like to swim and enjoy the ocean

A couple are avid runners participating on the cross-country team (I'm sure they could both beat this novice runner)

The Cross-Country Cs

One is the product of a divorce before he was even born

One is self-taught animator on YouTube (I really need to talk to him)

A favorite snack of another is a big bowl of green grapes

A young one from my morning classes is a cancer survivor

Receiving Treatment

One learned how to pogo stick with no hands before leaning to ride a bike

Pogo Stick

A young lady from my morning class has been in several live theatre performances

Theatre Masks

There were many more interesting and unique things shared throughout the day today.  I enjoyed every minute of my first day with my new students.  I appreciated all that they shared, and I'm proud to say that 100% of students stood up, showed their sculpture and shared what it represented about them.  All in all a successful #TitansFirstDay of school.  There's always time for the business side of things (rules, expectations, etc.), but we'll never get this initial first impression of each other back. Once again, I'm happy I chose the path less traveled for the first day of school.