We started back to school last Wednesday in a new school year with an unfamiliar group of students; however, we began building community and getting to know them on day one. The “Student Shoes” lesson that we developed for Innovation Institute guided us on day one and with a few additions we are already beginning to feel as though we know a little bit about these teens. I (Heather) usually have to have some connection or know a personality before remembering a name, so the sharing we all have done over the first three days of school have resulted in me being able to put a name to a face for all of my 119 junior high students. We decided to precede the shoe lesson with what we called a name sketch, so we gave each person a blank piece of copy paper and asked them to write their name prominently and then divide it into three sections. While you could require anything in these sections as a “get to know you” activity, we chose personality characteristics (we had to explain that we did not want physical traits), three goals (academic, fitness, and a goal for something outside of school), and finally we asked them to list their strengths. This was intentional to get them thinking about what they are good at so that after the shoe activity we could reasonably ask them to pick a strength to use this year.
I (Heather) feel that there were two really good springboards for conversation that these activities produced. The first was, after the students decorated their shoes (see above link) with colors and visuals explaining how they felt in that moment on the first day of school, we asked those who were willing to share with the class to do so. One of the best segues came when one of my students said she chose the flip-flop because she was sad summer was over, and she drew a sad face because she did not want to be back at school. I asked her why and she said, “because learning new things is hard.” Knowing we were going to discuss growth mindset I then asked how many people in the room agreed with her. Shocker . . . all hands went up. We were then able to talk about how the brain creates new pathways when you learn something new, and exercising that muscle is, in fact, difficult. I wrote that phrase on the board, and I tied it into my other three classes so that we were all able to admit to each other that we all have a hard time trying new things.
My other favorite thing that came out of this activity was in the follow-up the next day when we asked students to write down on an index card one strength that they had that they promised to bring to the classroom every day to contribute to the community we are building. I told them they would be displayed on the bulletin board at the front of my room, so to think hard about what they wrote down, because if at any time this year I feel that I am missing something from them, I will check the board to see what it is they listed as their strength. I loved hearing the different gifts they each offered, and while some of them were repeated, there were some that stood out. Oddly enough, in two of my classes, someone claimed “weirdness,” (I told them we also need quirks to make the world interesting) and I was thrilled to hear some kids say creativity, while another mentioned problem-solving. It was great to talk about how we would all be better together than we would be alone.
Here are some pictures of the shoes in the hallway:
Here are a few examples of name sketches:
