Happy new (school) year! When I was a teacher, I felt so many feelings around this time of August; anticipation, dread, excitement, and anxiety. I felt dread because I always struggled to plan a perfect lesson for the first day of school. What’s something that’s fun, allows me to get to know the students, allows the students to talk to each other, and sets up our class norms for the year? It seems like a tall order, especially when you don’t know who will be there or how they’ll respond to you.
Many of us opt for icebreakers on the first day of school, because it’s an efficient way to get to know your new students and learn their names. However, sometimes it’s challenging for icebreakers to fill a whole class period, and you may not want that. Your students will be doing icebreakers all day on the first day of school, so they might be fatigued by it when they make it to your class. I recommend doing a quick icebreaker activity and then jumping right into the curriculum.
Now, let’s talk about MISA. The Maryland Integrated Science Assessment (MISA) is given in fifth grade, eighth grade, and high school biology. If you teach any of those grades, MISA preparation will be front and center, for better or worse. Incorporating MISA prep into your daily lessons is a great way to address this. You can even start test prep on the first day of school. Here are some ideas:
You can start teaching the curriculum and preparing for MISA with a lesson about science and engineering practices.
You can see what they know by playing a vocabulary-matching game that’ll get your students moving and talking.
Alternatively, you can assign MISA-style warm-ups or homework that will familiarize your students with the test structure.
The great thing about these activities is that they can be modified and used multiple times all year round. However you start the new year, leave room for your classroom community to get acquainted with each other. It’s normal and ok to feel nervous about the new year. Your students are nervous, too! Relax, and focus on getting to know them. Have an awesome first day and a fun, successful year school year!
