New Teacher Orientation

I initially thought I would not be publishing a post here for another 4 weeks. However, I’m so excited to lead the orientation I mentioned in my previous post that I wanted to share a bit about it... before it takes place.

I’m in charge of new teacher orientation at my school. I also co-facilitate monthly meetings with new teachers at our school as a part of the Beginning Teachers Support Program. During this upcoming orientation I want teachers to walk away with things they can do in their own classrooms. I also want them leaving with the understanding that our group is a safe space to read, think, write, and talk about things. To achieve these goals I plan on...

1. Playing a Name Game improvisation with them and...

2. Get them writing with each other

The Name Game will be fun. We will stand in a circle. One person starts by saying their name, telling the group something interesting about themselves, finishing their introduction by creating a movement to associate with their name. The group in turn says the person’s name then does the movement. This continues until 4 people have introduced themselves. We then stop, go back to the first person and see if we can get through all 4, each person leading the way with their name and their movement. We then pick up with the fifth person who introduces themself to the group. When everyone has done so we go back to the first person and go all the way through the group. It’s a fun, low stakes way to get to know each other.

After we’ve completed the Name Game, we will write. I will introduce the group to a note-taking/note-making strategy called, the dialectic journal response. This strategy involves getting the participants to think about something thought provoking like, say a quote. In their notebooks they fold two, side-by-side pages in half; creating 4 columns. The quote is placed in the first column which is titled: Text. Time is given to read and respond to the quote in the second column titled: From Me. Then the fun begins. After thinking about the quote participants trade notebooks with a fellow participant. Each reads the other’s thoughts and writes a response in the other person’s notebook, in the third column titled: From (with space left to insert your name); thus the dialectic nature of the strategy. So, if you were my partner and I had your notebook, I would write, “From Tony” in the third column of your notebook, read what you wrote in the second column, and respond. Once each person has had time to read and respond to their partner they trade notebooks back. Once each participant has their notebook back they read their partner’s thoughts and respond to them in the last column titled: What I’m thinking Now. I’m hoping that this part of the orientation will show the participants that this group is a safe space where we will read, think, write, and talk about things with each other.

I’m excited to come back here in a few weeks to share how things went!!