First day of school – handshaking all around - Peoriatimes.com: Feature Stories

Great Article! I love what Capturing Kids' Hearts training can do for not only the staff but also the students. They're the reason why we do what we do!

 

First day of school – handshaking all around - Peoriatimes.com: Feature Stories: It starts with a handshake. Seventh-graders were greeted at the door to their classroom by their teacher, Ms. Reisenbigler. She teaches reading reading and writing. But her first lesson on the first day of school at Peoria Elementary School was a handshake greeting to each student assigned to her class.

Reisenbigler is just one teacher at PES who is now teaching under a new program called “Capturing Kids’ Hearts.”

“It’s phenomenal,” she said. “The kids are excited; we’re excited.”

The excitement is a result of a three-day lesson in what PES principal Phil Stanfield calls “a philosophy, not a classroom management plan, not a discipline plan, just building relationships with kids and kids developing relationships with adults.”

This past year, the Peoria Unified School District invited Flip Flippen @flipflippen, a psychotherapist with The Flippen Group @flippengroup, to present his program.

In Flippen’s words, “If you have a child’s heart, you have his head.”

Every PES teacher is now...

10 GREAT WAYS TO CONNECT WITH YOUR TEAM OR CLASSROOM

I love an article written by Aditi Rao on her blog TeachBytes about 10 icebreakers that use technology and fit with 21st century students. I think these ideas can also apply to our Admin and Teacher teams.

1. Have students create a Pinterest board with 10 pins that summarizes them.
2. Ask students to create a 30 second podcast that introduces themselves. Then allow students to present them or play them on separate devices as an audio gallery.
3. Create a classroom blog and ask each student to write a blog post introducing themselves to the rest of the classroom.
4. Have students create a quick comic strip to describe themselves or to recreate a recent funny moment in their lives.
5. Use PollEverywhere to ask students interesting questions and get to know them as a class, like their favorite subjects, bands or TV shows.
6. Use GoogleForms or SurveyMonkey to survey students about their interests, academic inclinations, and background info – a 21st century alternative to the “Getting to Know You” info sheet!
7. Have students create word clouds to describe themselves and share with the rest of the class.
8. Have students go on a QR code scavenger hunt in teams to get to know each other and learn about your classroom rules in a fun, engaging way.
9. Ask students to create their own Voki avatars that introduce themselves to the class. Encourage them to be creative with the backgrounds, characters and details of the avatar to reflect their own personalities and preferences.
10. Have students create graffiti online that speaks to their interests and personalities and share with the class.