Day 1 is daunting. Where does one start? Do you jump right in with content? Do a fun ice-breaker to get them engaged? Maybe you’re limited to attendance, fire-drill protocols, and seating charts. My plans change from year to year, but I wanted to share what my first day of Human Geography looks like. We have 50 minute class periods.

There are so many emotions at the start of the new school year, and I’m sure we share a few. Of course, I wouldn’t be human if I didn’t say that I am a bit sad that another good summer is leaving us. With that being said, all major shopping centers in America give you plenty of time to come-to-terms with this inevitability. I’m always a bit anxious about the students I will meet and if my family/school/personal schedules will peacefully coexist. But most of all, I have this creative spark at the start of each school year. Every year I make new professional goals (no, not the ones you submit to your administrator), a goal to stick to for an entire school year. One year it was interactive notebooks (which I still do), another was the cell phone charging station (still do), teaching without a textbook (succeeded), teaching paperless (failed, now it’s mixed). Of course the times I fail are not a loss because I’ve learned the boundaries of what this person can do in the classroom in terms of efficiency and effectiveness. What works for one teacher, might not work for another, but I am always thrilled to try out a new idea and embrace the challenge of seeing it through to the end.

This year, my Human Geography goals are to use every single ESRI GeoInquiry. If you haven’t seen these, jump on it. To date, there are 15, but I’ve heard that they library is growing. I recently went to the ISTE Conference in Chicago and spoke with the ESRI people about it. My second goal is to use our school’s new virtual reality Lenovo Mirage Solo headsets at least once per unit and blog/reflect about successes and failures. My third goal is to begin incorporating my illustrated textbook for Unit 1, the Human Imprint (this one is scary for me because this is an unfinished labor of love).

What year-long goals do you have? I would love to hear them.

In the meantime, here is my plan for day 1 of AP Human Geography:

• Greet every student at the door…with a smile.
• Check student schedules to make sure they’re in the right place.
• Have students fill out the 1st Day of School Google Form Survey. You can check it out here. I use this survey to find out who has a cellphone in their pockets so I can assign them charging station pockets. I do not tell them about the charging station ahead of time. I have weekly participation grades that incorporate this practice. I’ve only had two kids “opt-out” and refuse to participate. In these cases, I exempt them from the participation grade (does not help or hurt), and they are told the first time I see it, they will go to their administrator. Don’t feel bad for them, they have iPads.
• Class supplies: I tell my kids to get a 3 subject, college-ruled, 5-star styled notebook, a glue stick, and encourage colored flair pens. I always buy glue sticks so that students can buy them for 25 cents and usually some extra notebooks for kids who can’t/won’t bring one to class by day 3. I have the kids keep an interactive notebook throughout the year and we work hard to keep it organized and engaging.
• Icebreaker: Hand out shuffled pages of the National Geographic World Political Map to each student. Have them work together to recreate the world map as a giant puzzle on the floor (Downloadable PDF below). Note that the original map pieces are numbered and you will need to cut these out, otherwise kids will have an easy time deciphering). I threw the file in Notability and blotted out them out for my sake, as cutting them took forever (also find below).  We will time this activity. My summer school kids did it in 22 minutes. You will find out a lot about your students during this activity (proactive ones, the ones who finish their pages and stop working, introverts, extroverts, and the ones you need to keep on eye on-so take notes).
  • National Geographic World Political MapMaker Kit 136 Pieces <- Downloadable PDF here.
  • Edited without numbers

Because my students will be up and moving around during the first day (and the inevitable student schedule change), I wait for a seating chart until day 2. I will also do the syllabus on day 2 because I know they are slammed with them on day 1. I will wait until day 4 or 5 to distribute the textbook. On day 2, I also introduce the cell phone charging stations and assign pocket numbers (now that they’ve told me they have a cell phone on their body). 🙂

I hope the new school year is kind to you and that you also feel some inspiration to always be better than before. Please share your goals, I can always learn some new tricks.

-The Human Imprint