Better Chinese Teacher - First Six Weeks of School
As the old saying goes:“ Well begun is half done. ” All great teachers always try to find a way to start their year strong. One useful tool many schools have adopted is called the Responsive Classroom. The goal of the Responsive Classroom is to help students grow both socially and academically and it believes that the first six weeks of school help lay a solid foundation for a safe and positive classroom environment. Here's a quick summary of each weekly goal. [caption id="attachment_4244" align="aligncenter" width="400"]
Picture source: https://www.responsiveclassroom.org/[/caption] Week One The goal of week one is for everyone to start getting to know each other, especially names. Students will have a chance to share their individual interests and extra curriculum activities. They are also going to learn about school day routines, including but not limited to: arrival, lunch, transitions, signals, lining up and walking in the hallway, bathroom procedures, recess, clean up and dismissal. There will also be discussion about everyone’s hopes and dreams for the year. Week Two
The most important goal for this week is to set up the structure of the classroom through rules and routines. Students will start practicing working in small groups, pairs, individually and as a whole group. Academic lessons are now layered into the classroom community building activities that were started from the first week. Students will participate in various teacher-supervised activities. 
Week Three
The goal for this week is to teach students to develop critical thinking skills about possible ways to follow the class rules if there is more than one. Logical consequences will be introduced and applied this week. The teacher will use reflection and redirection as much as needed.
Week Four through Six After the practice of the first three weeks, most students will be able to stay on task and work individually because they will be familiar with the classroom routines and expectations. They will be able to generate meaningful discussion about classroom rules and logical consequences.
Reference Denton, Paula, and Kriete, Roxann. (2000). The First Six Weeks of School. Greenfield, MA: Northeast Foundation for Children, Inc.
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2 comments
Write a commentMay
hi,siqi,
it’s very inspiring to see your self introduction. me myself is also a preschool mandarin teacher. i have been always expecting an online forum for preschool mandarin teachers to share experience, knowledge and ideas. because apparently there are very limited materials for mandarin on the internet.
do you know any good forums or any good way for sharing and discussing? or we could build one on our own by using G+.:) i’m May from HK.
Siqi Guo
Hi May,
Glad to meet you here. Thanks to Better Chinese blog we have a chance to know each other. Is your school an international school or bilingual as well? We could communicate on this forum or through email in the future. It will be great if we could share teaching resources, connect more teachers and even set up pen friends for our students. My email address is: guobetterchinese@gmail.com.
Siqi