Do it anyway!

The signs are all around me. Everything that I'm encountering this summer is telling me to take a chance and do it anyway!  I had a tough year last year with energy and my pain with Fibromyalgia.  I still did some fun lessons and still established good relationships with my students, but I couldn't wait for the year to end.  Ironically, ever since the year ended, I haven't stopped thinking about next year.  In addition to #tlap, I've joined #SummerLS, which has brought me to new levels of Twitterdom.  I've found podcasts and articles and tweets that have all been leading me to want to do something dramatic and special for the first days of school.  I've always tried to make the first days special, but I just read an article by AJ Juliani  that used the word "epic" in relation to experiences in school.  My "epic" experiences in my classroom have always been things like making hot chocolate for Polar Express and making paper flowers, making churros, etc. These are things the kids always remember and talk about in addition to certain fun games and songs.  I've been worrying that if I do something too spectacular on the first day that the day to day lessons won't "live up" to the first day.  But they aren't supposed to.  The first day is a special day.  Especially for freshmen.  It's their first day of high school!  So I'm going to do it anyway!  I'm going to think of something to make their first day of high school in Spanish class memorable.  There's always the second day and third day to get into the procedures.  I don't want to spend any time at all going over consequences for behavior, I've decided to go over those individually with students if and when they need them.

So these are the things I'm considering when making my first day plans:

• Dave Burgess mentioned that it's important to "make" something.  So I've got to figure out what that will be.  Considering paper flowers in school colors. 
• Make my seating chart with the numbers on the desks and numbers on the chart as always.  That's something that's worked for me for years.  Students are in their seats and ready to go when the bell rings.  They know I'm ready for them and organized.  
• Have something fun about Spanish for them to learn and play with and use music.  
• Have the whole period full. 
• Make it memorable.
• Have pictures of students from last year playing on looping Power Point during passing period while I'm in the hallway greeting them on their way in the room. 
• Have Facebook page info and Remind sign-up info on back of seating chart.  Send a text at end of school day.  

The Ron Clark Academy always has a party or celebration on the first day of school before going into the classrooms for actual school.  I don't have that luxury so I'm going to make the first day a celebration.  I think if I do it right, I can send the message that the first day of school is a celebration without sending the message that my class isn't going to be any work at all.  I can still show that I'm organized and mean business.  At least that's my plan.  Even if it's not the conventional advice for the first day of school, I'm going to DO IT ANYWAY!