Summer is quickly coming to an end as the school year officially begins for me this Friday. My time away from my second home was well spent in reflection and relaxation as I gear up for what will be a VERY busy fall semester…not only am I finally going to be able to implement my dissertation work in the form of a year-long professional development model but I am serving on the district textbook consult AND I’m piloting two new world history textbooks.

After a long afternoon nap (boy, I’m going to miss those!), I began work on the various technology sites and tools my students will be using this year. I set up my Power School Learning class, Google Classroom(s), and Edmodo site. I also finished creating the scavenger hunt I plan to use with my students on the first day of school. The scavenger hunt is the product of my work for the multicultural education course this summer. My hope is that the first day of school in my classroom will begin with students getting to know each other instead of being bored to death by sitting through a lecture on rules. Some of the scavenger hunt questions will have students getting signatures from others outside of their class period which will hopefully push them to branch out to create a larger learning community.

I am in the process of setting up my Tell Me About You page in Power School which includes a Google Form that solicits information from students to help me get to know them (and their needs) quickly. This is also a by-product of my work from the multicultural education course this summer. I’m excited to see how these various activities impact my relationships with my students. I’ll keep you posted!