Prioritizing Relationships and Classroom Culture During the First Week of School

Back to school season is an overwhelming time for teachers and students alike. This is why it's important to take the time to develop relationships and create a classroom culture that everyone can thrive in!

My previous school always emphasized forming meaningful relationships with students and even let teachers use the whole first week of school for relationship building. This really helped me and my students feel more comfortable and prepared for a year of learning. They felt that they could trust their classmates and me, which allowed mistakes and growth to happen.

So what's the best way to do this? Check out the tried and true tips below for starting the school year off right!

1. Classroom Procedures and Expectations

During my first year of teaching, my assistant principal told me that I had the classroom management of a fifth year teacher. While there are several things that contributed to this, my classroom procedures definitely played a huge role.

On the very first day of school, it's important to explain and model your expectations. Emphasize these expectations throughout the week, and your students are sure to pick up on things quickly.

You can easily introduce your rules and procedures in a slideshow on the first day of school. Make sure that the slides are easy to understand and cover everything you want students to know while still being concise. Take creative freedom and act out different scenarios yourself or with student volunteers, and make sure not to overload learners with too much talking.

Between every 4-5 slides, I like to include a quick multiple choice question to engage learners even more. I'll often dole out candy or other extrinsic motivators to those that get the questions right. Throughout the week, I usually create a quick Gimkit, Kahoot, or Quizizz for students to play, so they completely master these expectations, and there's no confusion.

After going over rules and procedures, I like to offer the opportunity to complete a classroom scavenger hunt. This way students get more familiar with the classroom and have an opportunity to put their newly learned expectations to the test.

2. Teacher Get to Know You Activities

You know what they say: students learn better from people they like. While you can't have every student like you, you can let them get to know you in a unique way on that first day of school.

On the first day of school, I have my students complete an "About Your Teacher Quiz." Unless they read the information I include in my Meet the Teacher Handout, they probably don't know the answers to these questions.

After they're done taking their guesses, I review the answers in my slideshow. Some years, I'll have students "grade" their quizzes, and whoever gets the most correct answers may also get a prize.

This activity works far better than just droning on and on about myself. Students are much more likely to buy in when they can be more involved. Just like with expectations, I may reward students later on in the week if they can recall a random fact about me.

3. Student Get to Know You Activities

I always like to know as much about my students as I can. This helps me relate to them and understand them and their abilities early on.

I used to go with a classic game of "Two Truths and a Lie." While I still sometimes pull this out of my back pocket, I usually opt for different activities.

Instead, I'll often have students create their own "About Yourself" quiz just like the one I make about myself. This way, they can get inspiration for things to write down from my quiz, and they can learn multiple things about a partner that they choose to exchange with.

I also like to play a game of Four Corners. With this game, you can either have premade slides to help guide you, or you can come up with things on the spot.

You start by posing a question like, "What is the best fast food restaurant?" Then you tell the students what each corner of the room represents. One corner might represent McDonald's, one could represent Burger King, the third one could represent Wendy's, and the fourth one could represent Taco Bell. After that, students will walk to the corner that aligns with their opinion.

This is a great activity because it allows quieter students to still demonstrate their opinions, and more talkative students can verbally share their reasoning for their choice. Plus, it gets everyone up and moving!

4. Team-Building Exercises

Just like our students are stuck with us throughout the school year, they're also stuck with one another. It helps if they get along.

Team building exercises boost collaboration and trust, allowing students to rely on one another and feel safe enough to try their best.

I like to complete one team building exercise per day. They're usually very hands-on activities. This way there are no awkward silences, and students don't feel put on the spot to talk about themselves.

One of my favorite challenges is the Cup-Stacking Challenge. In this challenge, students receive 6 cups, 4 strings, and 1 rubber band. With these materials, they need to find a way to stack the cups without touching them with their hands.

Every single year, students have a blast with this activity! Not only are they having fun, but they're also learning how to effectively communicate along with valuable STEM skills.

5. SEL Activities

Last but not least, social emotional learning activities are a MUST with students during the first week of school.

I like to assign interactive slideshows to my students. Students really enjoy them, AND they're easy for me to organize and look at in real time on Google Classroom.

The slideshow I use for the first week of school is Back to School Shopping. While it includes some surface level questions, it does touch on goal setting and different feelings about academic subjects.

Bringing It All Together

There's not a single "right" way to do the first week of school. You might do all of these things or none of them and still have happy and successful students. The most important thing is to show your students that you care, and they'll have a great year!

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