New Student Packets and a New Attitude
During the first ten years of my teaching career I taught in a fairly transient school district with students moving in and out on a regular basis. Often, students would show up with a caregiver in the middle of the school day without prior notice, register the child, and leave him/her at the new school. When I think back, I can only imagine how frightened some of these children must have been having to jump right into this new situation without even seeing the classroom or meeting the teacher prior to being left there. When I think back, I can also still feel the knot that would develop in my stomach when I saw the principal or secretary enter the room with the new student. Of course, I tried to be friendly, welcoming, and reassuring, but inside, what I was feeling was often dread. Not because I didn’t want the new student, but because I wasn’t prepared for him. Often there was no desk for the child to even sit in. I would scramble around to find books and nametags to make the child feel like s/he had a place, but I’m sure s/he could sense my stress. And who knows what the rest of the class was doing at the time!
After dealing with this problem for a couple of years, I finally came up with a solution that is quite simple but did wonders for my stress level when new students arrived. Since many of you have just started school or will be starting shortly, I thought I would pass on my solution. I call them “new student packets.” Here is how they work: At the beginning of the year when you are making nametags, distributing folders, important papers, books, etc., take a few extra minutes to make several extra sets. Place each set of extras in a Ziploc bag or large envelope and file them away. When you get a new student in the middle of the year, you simply pull out one of your “new student packets” and you’re ready to roll. These are the contents of my packets: safe folder, Take-Home-Tuesday folder, reading folder, writing folder, math folder, poetry notebook, classroom handbook, daily planner, reading response log, paper plate, locker nametag, attendance chart name card, apron name card, sub kit nametag, parent volunteer letter, homework contract, writing topics parent letter and form, personality of the week letter, Month-to-Month Me booklet, birthday card, portfolio.
That’s quite a list of items! No wonder it stressed me out trying to gather all of them each time a new student arrived. Once I developed this system, not only did my stress level decrease, but my attitude improved. It was so much easier for me to truly welcome each new child into my community of learners.
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