Thinking Ahead

We are a little over a month away from my district starting its school year and the question "how should I start?" has frequently visited my consciousness. There have been a few things I have come across that I think may be good to try out to introduce lessons, rules, or just a welcome activity perhaps.

1. Powtoon 4 EDU - This website looks like a really fun way to engage students during an introduction.
   Here is the one I made:


I found it really easy to use and it comes with a variety of templates you can choose from to start out.


2. RAFTS - This summer I was lucky enough to be able to attend a class about RAFTs (which stands for Role/Audience/Format/Topic) and how to use it in the classroom setting. I have been thinking that it might be a good approach to go about reinforcing rules and routines in the classroom.  Students could take on the role of a teacher, a mentor, a television celebrity (basically anything) to teach an audience about the rules/routines using a format that they choose (such as a public service announcement video or a poster). I thought this could be a fun way to review the rules after they have been taught and practiced for a while. Click on the "Rafts" to see some other examples.  I love this website- it has a lot of good ideas about differentiation!

That's what I have so far besides the books that I have been reading/ plan on reading.  One book I really am excited for is:

When I observed a 6th grade math class last fall I observed a teacher who used interactive notebooks very successfully in her classroom.  Watching the students so engaged with their notebooks made me very interested in learning how I could use them myself.  I am hoping that I can get some good ideas from this book (and if you have any good resources or advice about how to go about doing interactive notebooks in the classroom PLEASE do share! =) ). 

What about you? What things have you done that you have found to be successful at the beginning of the year?