The trailer starts out with an exciting rock track. This is vital to get everyone who watches the video hyped up and sucked into the video. The music rises to a crescendo, and a voice-over (which I attempt to read in the manner of a movie trailer narrator) explains the epic journey students will be embarking on in my class. It’s just a taste of the meal that will come throughout the year. I also share the video with students, and they can’t wait to start on the journey.
BEGINNING-OF-THE-YEAR Welcome Pack (WELCOME VIDEO/ROOM TOURS)
POSSIBLE APPLICATIONS: Teacher to Student
What if you could start shaping your future students’ perceptions of your class before they ever set foot in your room? What if you could build up anticipation and excitement before the school year even starts?
When I was a kid, I had a few ways of knowing that summer was winding down. The first sign was our yearly pilgrimage to Walmart, school supply lists in hand. We would spend hours wandering aisle after aisle of tubs of crayons, shelves overflowing with crisp, clean backpacks emblazoned with superheroes, row after row of spiral notebooks with adorable kittens or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, folders sporting the greatest athletes of the day, and of course every Lisa Frank product imaginable, items spilling off shelves and littering the floor. I loved all of it.
Another sign that signaled summer’s end was the much-anticipated teacher reveal. I still remember being driven by my mom up the school’s circular drive in our maroon Safari minivan and walking up to the front door where the school rosters were always posted. My brothers and I would frantically scan the lists with a mob of other anxious students, ready to whoop with joy or bow our heads in dread as we saw who we would be spending 180 days with in the near future. Once middle school hit, my friends and I would pore over our schedules trying to track down any and all information we could about our new teachers.
Every year around school registration, my team and I release our welcome website, welcometosft.weebly.com. It has everything an incoming sixth grader could want. There are links to videos that might interest the students, websites and games for the students to explore, photos from previous years showing exciting things students might get to participate in, and a video tour of the building.
In this way, students get to see video interviews with each of the team teachers, administrators, and counselors. Students want to see who they will be spending most of their time with. I want them to know our faces from Day One. I want them to know exactly who to go to if they need help during those first few days of school. A name on a schedule doesn’t mean much, but kids are hooked if they see Mr. Stock talking about his class, hear the excitement in his voice, and find out about the spectacular things we might do.
CREATING A WELCOME VLOG
| Ingredients:recording device (I usually just use my phone)tripod (optional)Awesome SaucePrep Time: 1 minuteRecording Time: 2 to 5 minutesDifficulty: • • • • • | Directions:1. Create a welcome website. This could be part of an existing website, but it should be a standalone site if possible. This is time-consuming the first year, but each year after that it’s just a matter of updating the content. Check out my welcome website: welcometosft.weebly.com2. Record a daily update starting in the middle of the summer.3. Include things like the following:• sitting in the sun• enjoying family time• setting up your classroom (time lapse videos are fun for this)• any summer meetings you attend• the night before the first day of school4. Post your video to YouTube.5. Post a link to the video on your welcome website.6. Repeat all summer leading up to the first day of school.7. Share QR codes linking to the website on the front door of the school, in any welcome newsletters you send out, and anywhere else students and parents might see it. |
Around mid-July, I start posting a video blog, or vlog, on the site. This leads up to the first day of school, and the goal is to build up excitement and suspense. I document everything going on at the school. I show videos of my room as it starts to come together. I share videos from meetings with the team to show how we are all in this together. I pull out books and do quick book talks to promote some of the exciting books students can borrow from my classroom library. All of these videos give students a feel for who we are. My goal is for the school to feel like a second home, and this is a small step toward meeting that goal.
SCHOOL Tours
POSSIBLE APPLICATIONS: Teacher to Student
Any time I’m in a new city or town, I love to explore. I love to go on adventures and discover hidden parks and restaurants. I hate crowds, so I like to avoid touristy areas if I can. But I’ll be honest: I’m not a brave explorer. I do TONS of research before I go somewhere, looking up maps and videos of different parts of a city.
Students start their own adventure every year. New students are learning an entirely new building for the first time, and returning students may be exploring new parts of the building they never even knew existed. My school is a bizarre network of interlocking pods plus random hallway offshoots scattered throughout. It’s fifty years old and has been remodeled over and over. It’s a maze for experienced patrons—and a nightmare for newbies.
STUDENT-CREATED VIDEO
Students love to hear tips and tricks from other students. The older students know the best shortcuts, the hallways that are always congested, and the water fountains with the coldest water. Share tips for parts of the school students care the most about. Include a video for some of these areas:
1. CAFETERIA. What are students’ favorite meals in the cafeteria? How do you get through the lunch line?
2. LOCKER. What are some tips for remembering locker combinations? What are some decorating tips?
3. COUNSELING OFFICE/NURSE’S OFFICE. Where can students get help if they need it?
4. WATER FOUNTAINS/BATHROOMS. Where are the nearest bathrooms? Which water fountains have the coldest water and the shortest lines? What is the school policy for hall passes?
To alleviate student stress, I give video tours of the school. I share these with incoming sixth graders and students new to our team, but they can benefit anyone who is in the building for the first time. For my sixth graders, I give tours of the team classrooms, elective classrooms, the cafeteria, and the office. I also point out where a few of the best bathrooms are in the school. Students can watch the videos and visualize the school before they even arrive.
SCHOOL TOURS
| Ingredients:recording device (I usually just use my phone)tripod (optional)map of the schoollist of important locations (teachers in those locations if possible)Awesome SaucePrep Time: 10 to 15 minutesRecording Time: 30 to 45 minutesDifficulty: • • • • • (more if you want to edit them together) | Directions:1. Think about your audience.
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