As we all know as educators getting to know our students in this season of the school year is highly important. Our ability to connect with them and build relationships with each student and their unique talents will set the tone for the school year. I once heard from an educational speaker that 30 seconds can change the scope of your interactions with students, choose how you will use those 30 seconds of interactions. When I first had heard this I never had sat with the fact that students in 30 seconds can make connections with their teachers or in those 30 seconds they can feel no connection and begin to feel unwelcome in the learning space. It is so important to build those relationships and even more so get to know our students strengths and talents so we can honor their unique piece of the larger classroom learning environment puzzle.
One of the ways I've found best to do this is through sharing picture books and creating collaborative experiences that are warm, open, and filled with dialogue, less from me the teacher and more from my students.
I start each year reading the book The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi. You can find it on amazon by clicking here!
The Name Jar is a wonderful story of a new student who enters a classroom where no one can produce her name. She has just moved from Korea and as any child would want to, she wants to fit in, however she doesn't want to share her name with her new classroom and wants to pick a new American name from a jar but nothing fits. Slowly she learns that the best name for her is her given name Unhei with the help of new friendships and warm welcome of her new classmates.
I use my book companion with vocabulary, comparing and contracting, and sequencing tasks as well as a name project for students to research their origins of their names and present to the class through writing, art, or whatever fits best for your classroom setting.
I always loved hearing my students as they showed their drawings and read their reports of their names origins, sometimes things they also had just learned about their names. This has always been a great way to get my students engaged in getting to know each other as well as in reading and writing for the school year.
Happy Back to School and I wish your students and you and wonderful school year filled with joy, exploration and discovery!
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