School Event

This was a very interesting post!! I am high school math teacher in an urban district and I think the students need a detox at the beginning of the year. I think the most frightening thing is how many students just “hate” school. I think educators in my school district have been lead to believe that we start teaching subject skills on day 1. We don’t always have the chance to get to know our students on day one except for their names and maybe their birthdates.
I really appreciate the links to the tools you use during your detox week. We have personal learning plans for our students using our district wide online system but they are very tedious and it’s more of chore for the students because the questions focus on short and long term goals and some of them just haven’t thought about goals for themselves. I think if schools spent time getting to know their students we could avoid a lot of the misbehavior. I also think that some teachers don’t want to get to know their students because teaching is just a paying job. Teachers need to be detox as well, we could have talks during our first few days of professional development with teachers to help them let go some of negative feelings they have against their students.
I don’t know if I could go ice blocking with my students but I wonder if my school could start off the school year with a spirit week instead of at the middle of or end of the school year. I think most students would like to see their teachers have a little fun instead of viewing them as the wardens at the state prison. I think the first impressions dictate how people will treat us in the future so why not share a smile and then talk about classroom environments that function safely and productively for