Summer is over, you start to go back into your classroom and start working 15,0001 hour days to get everything done. You start having teacher nightmares and can barely function because you are so tired…but you keep on keeping on. Before you know it the school years rolls around. You can barely keep your head above water but you are ready for the new school year. New nails, new hair, beautiful classroom, new class list, sharp pencils…it’s all so exciting!
Well – let’s go back a few months to June. It wasn’t all that long ago let’s be honest. Summer was like 5 seconds long right?!?! I saw this meme in June and it made me kinda sad…
We get it, in June we are tapped out, tired and ready for our summer. But this meme got me thinking about the message we send our kids. Yay you’re gone – don’t let the door hit you on the way out. That’s what it looks like according to this meme. I want my students to understand their value completely. The relationships I build in my classroom are the most important things I do all year long. I get it guys, some years are harder than others. Some years/days are much easier. Back when we had a 20:1 ratio in So. Cal there were days I felt like I didn’t deserve my paycheck. But trust me when I had 28 or 32 first graders back in the day I definitely earned my paycheck. BUT STILL they look to us for our reactions, emotions, etc. I want them to remember me with #allthelove #allthehearteyes
So, I was thinking this summer how can we show how excited we are to start the year off with our littles?!?
Then I thought why not gather up some cheerleader pom poms and have the parents line the hallways as we walk through the doors into our classroom on the first day? So, at Meet the Teacher night we sent home letters ( telling them to keep it a secret ) and told the parents to line the hallways the next day and high five the kids, cheer them on and shake the pom poms. It was amazing! My team partner and I had tears in our eyes. It was motivating, inspirational and encouraging. Our kids felt loved and excited about the new year. Our parents took pictures and videos and were just as excited…it was magical!!!
If you want to see a sample of the note I sent home – here it is below… (notice how I mentioned say your goodbyes ) after the cheering. Haha – sometimes we have to ‘kick’ our parents out so we can start our day and that’s okay.
It was the perfect way to start off our year and it is a sure fire way to get the parents ‘on your side’ right off the bat. There are no questions what your intentions are or how special you want their child to feel after that I promise you!
It was truly the most amazing first day I’ve ever had and this is the start of my 25th year of teaching. If you are able I highly encourage you to get your team on board and give this a try.
