Start the school year off right by greeting your new students as they walk in the door to your classroom. Students who feel that their teachers care about them personally and are invested in their individual success in school often perform better than those with less attentive teachers. Show your students that you care about them from day one by standing at your door and greeting each incoming student. Make eye contact with each student as they walk in and say “hello.” Introduce yourself to your students and ask their names as they enter their new classroom.
Begin your lesson on the first day of school by introducing yourself to your new students. Provide your new class with a brief but descriptive overview of yourself. Tell them a bit about your education, your interests, your family and some fun tidbits like your favorite color or a location you recently visited. As you speak to the class, smile and make eye contact with each individual student. Ideally, your introduction will give your students a sense of who you are as a person as well as an authority figure, and make them feel at ease in their new classroom.
Ask your students to share their names. You probably don’t know any of their names, and it’s very likely that they don’t know the names of other people in their class as well. Have each student tell the class his name and a fun tidbit, such as his family pet or favorite subject in school. Remind students to speak up when they say his or her name so the whole class can hear them. While your students introduce themselves, consider taking notes or making mental associations to help you remember their names faster.
Icebreaker games are a tried and true method of helping people in a group setting get to know each other better. Choose an easy and fun icebreaker game to play once your students have finished introducing themselves. One example of a good game to play involves coming up with alliterative descriptors. For this game, have your students stand in a circle around the room. Each student should say their name with an alliterative descriptor, such as Happy Hannah or Awesome Andrew. At the end of the game, ask for volunteers who think they can remember each student’s name and descriptor.