You've probably been thinking about the start of the 2015 school year since somewhere around October of 2014: you know, about when you started to think, "Man! If only I had done [x], we would be doing amazing right now! Can't wait to start off the school year right next year..."
So you may already have grandiose plans for the first few days and weeks of school--plans that involve using the target language at least 90 percent of the time, distributing a really cool and student-friendly syllabus, establishing procedures and systems that will make teaching a breeze and learning a joy, and language acquisition!Like, your students are really going to learn the language this year!!
But maybe you don't. Maybe you just got back from a summer TCI conference like iFLT or NTPRS, or maybe you stumbled across this blog or another in the last few weeks as you frantically searched the Internet for fresh ideas and whatever you learned or read has you feeling like you need to make a last-minute switch, but you've no idea what to do!
There is good news. Many others have done the work for you!! All you need to do is sit down at your computer for a few hours this week and read through all of the lesson plans that are already out there to decide what will work best for you. To compile this list, I searched this list of blogs and websites of trained TPRS®/CI teachers. If you'd like your name and info to be added to the list, please complete this form.
- 2-week back to school lesson plan from Carol Gaab
- Powerful activities to start the school year FREE webinar from Carol Gaab
- Using TPR in the first week of school by Keith Toda
- How I start the year with TPRS by Chris Stolz
- How I start the first week by Mike Coxon
- 10 first day of school ideas from Cynthia Hitz
- 7 things to plan for the first day by Me
- Syllabi from Carrie Toth
- First day of school ice breaker from Kristy Placido
- La persona especial from Bryce Hedstrom (pertinent links under 'student engagement' heading)
- Lesson plan and reflections from Elizabeth Dentlinger
- First day plans (bingo and language acquisition) from Haiyun Lu
- Plans for Levels 1-4 by Dustin Williamson
- Chinese resources from the first several days by Annick Chen
- Establish classroom jobs for students using Ben Slavic's list
If you know of any other TPRS®/CI teachers that have posted about what they do in the first days of school, please share the links in the comments!!
