#1st5days

Erin:
Our Principal has been known to show some pretty rockin' videos at staff meetings and they typically fall into one of two categories:

a) hysterically funny 
or 
b) inspiring. 

Our guiding mantra.

At the occasion of our first gathering of the school year, he unveiled one of the latter and we watched teachers around the globe talk about the benefits of forming a solid foundation of trust and communication with their students.  

And then he issued a challenge: Don't teach any content during the first five days of school.

Thought #1 - Crap.
Thought #2 - This could be really, really awesome.

With less than twelve hours until students walked into my room, I resisted the urge to scour the internet for fantabulously creative activities.  Thankfully, sanity won out.  I chose a good night's sleep and just kind of trusted that the kids would show me what they needed, and I prayed that I was up to the challenge.

Mary:
My team decided to pick up our principal's thrown gauntlet, and we embarked on a three-day team-building quest.  We began with an in-depth look at the HMMS 6 Pillars of Character: Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness, Caring, Citizenship.  Each content area teacher, special ed teacher, and the school adjustment counselor took one pillar and created a short presentation.  We worked independently, so one adult didn't know what the others would be presenting.  Some simply stood before the students and spoke passionately.  Others engaged the students in hands-on activities, or showed You Tube videos and PowerPoint presentations.  By the end of the short assembly, the students had not only experienced a refresher on the Pillars, but an introduction to the teachers.  

"No One Gets Left Behind"

Somewhat reluctantly we set aside our old team name, The Dream Catchers, and agreed to let our current students name themselves.  The kids worked in groups in homeroom to create meaningful names, logos, and mottoes.  Within homerooms the suggestions were narrowed down to two, and the final eight presented and justified their creations to the whole team in the auditorium.  The students rated each presentation on:
1. how well the name reflected our core values
2. how well the logo captured the spirit of the team
3. the appropriateness of the motto.  

Once the points are tallied (I'll update in comments!), we'll have a new team identity. And each student had a hand in building it.

Erin: 
Over the course of the First Five Days, I wrote open-ended questions on the surface of a beach ball and threw it at my children.  And we stood on chairs and called each other dorks.  And we wore each other's shoes.

I found out what they feared, what they considered to be their greatest accomplishments, the worst thing a teacher could do, and how they'd spend one million dollars.  I'm somewhat ashamed to admit that I found out new information about students who've sat in my room for two years.

Another activity (impulsively named Four Card Draw) gave them two minutes to reflect on each of four topics.  For three of the prompts, they only shared what they cared to, but for the fourth "I expect good teachers to..." I made them read aloud to the class and I sat down with a pencil.  

At your service!

"Wait, you're writing this down?" 

"Of course.  I want to know what you need from me and I'm going to do the best I can to do exactly that."

Turns out, their requests were remarkably simple.  One even said "Have a smile on your face," but the light in my students' eyes told me they felt respected - honored that I simply asked their input.  Just like that, we were on the same page.  And we were bonded.

By the time our last activity rolled around, I knew this had worked because I had the kind of goosebumps moment about which teachers only dream. 

Mary:
My first day with my new cherubs, I passed around a roll of toilet paper and told the kids to take what they thought they would need, but I kept mum about exactly why they would need it.  Once everyone had some squares to spare, I asked them to share tidbits of information about themselves - one tidbit per square.  I soon became privy (see what I did there...?) to the fact that I was sharing my classroom with artists, dancers, football players, musicians, BBQ lovers, poets, readers, gamers, equestriennes, baseball fanatics, actors and actresses, and one kindred Shakespeare devotee. I learned that three students have hermit crabs for pets, but only one of those kids bothered to name their crustacean ("Crabby").  I learned that students had traveled to St. John's and St. Thomas over the summer, that others have never left the country. 

I took squares, too.  Before I volunteered information, I asked if there was anything they wanted to know.  It struck me as bitter sweet that their questions were so basic.  What is my first name?  Do I have children?  It requires so little to build the foundations of a relationship!  They now know that my full name is Mary Beth Varney Cotillo, the names and ages of my kids, that my favorite ice cream flavor is Ben and Jerry's Chocolate Therapy, but if I had to choose one dessert for the rest of my life I'd have to go with chocolate layer cake.  Oh, and if an 8th grader asks, I'm 29.  (Help a girl out, would you?)

Erin:
Not only did I notice that our kids bonded with their 29 year-old teachers, but they quickly attached to each other.  During one class' run at Four Card Draw, an eighth-grade boy got stuck.  He couldn't think of anything that made him unique.  I have to be honest, he was the only child that struggled with this.  It was unfathomable to me to leave him with a blank yellow card and thankfully, heaven intervened.  When another student piped up a question, that young man answered and I said "There you go!  You just inspired him.  Did you see?  You gave him an idea!"  His eyes lit up and he began to write.

You are unique.  You are inspiring.

And so there, on a bright yellow card, is the word "inspiring."

For my final activity I staged a scavenger hunt.  After stealing all of Mary's clipboards, I hid "I am" prompts around the room and let my kids loose with paper and a pencil, instructing them to spend no more than 60 seconds at each one.  

Now, if I told them they were going to write a poem, I would have had a mass exodus to the bathroom, or the nurse, or the Army recruiting office...anywhere.  I may have even seen tears.  See, I work with struggling learners for whom reading and writing do not come easily.  Mine is a replacement class where students receive specialized instruction in literacy skills.   Yet in just fifty-three minutes - one class period - every single student had completed an eighteen-line poem.  I've never experienced anything like it.

After one student printed her final version, I read in response to "I understand" she had written, "I understand C1".  It took me a moment to figure out what that meant.  Then it hit me: C1.  That was my class.  On day three of school, this young lady felt like she belonged.  How does it possibly get any better than that?

Mary:
I'm not going to lie, these team building activities were exhausting.  Teachers threw together pillar presentations overnight.  We sacrificed every second of our planning time to conceiving, creating, and distributing materials to facilitate our re-branding.  We wrangled summer-antsy kids back into group work in a fairly unstructured setting.  It was messy.  It was loud.  Honestly, it would have been a LOT easier to just jump into literature terms and start my short story unit.

But there is no question that the investment of time and energy paid huge dividends.  On Friday afternoon, on her way out the door, one young lady observed, "I love our new team. I think this year is going to be fun."  And I can't ask for more than that.   

So, what's your take on the #1st5days?  Please comment or tweet your thoughts #CRL  

Mary @mzcotillo
Erin @allinoleary