A New Series Just for Beginning Teachers 

When the pandemic began, I had five upcoming speaking engagements that I was particularly looking forward to. At all of them, I would be helping groups of teachers figure out ways to deal successfully with their most challenging students so that those students could be successful classroom citizens. And, of course, my hope was that their teachers could also enjoy their profession more without the debilitating stress that accompanies trying to deal with unruly and difficult students.

The pandemic changed everything. 

At home, I watched as teachers were hailed as heroes for the way they managed the incredible task of teaching kids during the pandemic lockdown. And not just teaching: seeing that their students were fed and cared for even when normal classroom support systems were not available. I watched with pride as teachers everywhere found the grace and patience to connect with their students in new ways. 

And then that changed, too. With growing despair, I watched as teachers were vilified for not doing enough. NOT DOING ENOUGH? 

Now there's the "surprising" news that there will be a record shortage of educators this fall. Of course, there will be. Incredibly difficult jobs + unrealistic expectations + stinking heaps of public criticism do not make make becoming an educator a popular career choice.

Old news, I know, to those of you who lived it. But, despite everything, better times lie ahead. I fully believe that. As the horrors of the pandemic begin to fade, education is still a worthy and personally fulfilling profession. You help people change their lives when you are an educator. 

To help beginning teachers adjust to their new profession, I plan to publish some of the slides that I had prepared for my pre-pandemic presentation. My hope is to provide a weekly framework of suggestions to help new teachers find ways to support and work well with all of their students--not just the most difficult or challenging ones. 

So, to start, here are a few thoughts about how to avoid one of the most common classroom problems: power struggles. 

Fifty Things I Wish I Had Known When I Was a New Teacher

Some things never change. Even though I have posted this list before and shared about a zillion times when people email me requesting a copy, the advice in it still makes sense.

Being a first-year teacher is not easy. If you are a mentor or someone else who works with the new teachers in your school or your district, you may want to print this list and share. It never hurts to know that you are not alone with your worries when you are just starting out in a new career.

1. Don’t be afraid to experiment and have fun learning with your students. It’s okay to fail sometimes.
2. Realize that you will have to prove yourself all year long. To students, colleagues, parents, yourself…
3. Being regarded as trustworthy is an invaluable goal.
4. There will be plenty of opportunities to learn from mistakes.
5. If you don’t spend time reflecting on your teaching each day, it will be very hard for you to improve.
6. There will never be enough time to get all of the things you want to accomplish with your students done.
7. It’s important to think about student activities in terms of small blocks of time so they stay on task.
8. Leave your problems at school at the end of the day. Balance is key.
9. It’s important to show students how to help themselves. Learned helplessness does not have to be permanent.
10. Take good care of school resources and teach students to do the same.
11. Use your personal strong points and teach your students to do the same.
12. Be selective. Don’t fight battles you can’t win. Ignore the small stuff.
13. Focus on what you can change and get then get busy doing it.
14. Use a multifaceted approach when presenting material.
15. Don’t just react to a problem. Solve it.
16. It takes time to get to know your students and even longer to gain their fragile trust.
17. Make it a point to build strong relationships with your colleagues. You need each other.
18. Parents do indeed expect you to live up to their ideal of what a teacher should be.
19. If you act like a professional, you will make it easier for others to defend you when you make a mistake.
20. Paperwork must be dealt with accurately, quickly, and efficiently.
21. Patience. Patience. Patience.
22. You are a role model, ready or not.
23. When you teach students to believe in themselves, you create lifelong learners.
24. Don’t allow any student to be invisible. Draw them in. Build confidence and engagement.
25. Establish routines for yourself and for your students. Everyone will benefit.
26. Students need structure. They also need fun and creativity.
27. Get them up and moving. Active students tend to misbehave less than those who are bored.
28. Be prepared for class. This means having a solid Plan B.
29. Spend more time telling your students what they do right than what they do wrong.
30. When you make a mistake, admit it and move on. Teach your students this, too.
31. Be unfailingly positive. After all, if you don’t believe in your students, who does?
32. Students are far more concerned with the idea of “fairness” than you can imagine.
33. Set goals for yourself and work with your students to set goals for them.
34. Stay away from those negative colleagues. They will poison your day, your week, your career.
35. Ask for help. We all need help at times. Speak up.
36. Actively work to improve your skills and knowledge about teaching.
37. Create your own PLN. Use social media to reach out.
38. Volunteer for extra jobs at school with caution.
39. Work hard to let your students know how special they are to you.
40. The worst students deserve the best in you.
41. No one comes to school determined to fail—despite evidence to the contrary.
42. You will make a difference in the lives of your students…it takes time, however.
43. Ask, “How can I help you with that?” and watch the magic happen.
44. Say, “I know you’re better than that” when a student misbehaves.
45. You will have some hard days as a teacher. Plan ahead how you will manage stress.
46. You can’t ever predict how a lesson will go or what your students will do.
47. Laughing with students is a great way to build a community in a hurry.
48. Connections with students are vital if you want to have happy days at school.
49. A well planned lesson is the best discipline plan you can have.
50. Never, ever forget that you may be the only person who shows a student that you care.

Fourteen Resolutions for the New Year

It’s a natural combination at this time of year—New Year’s resolutions and a reflective teaching practice. While Winter Break gives us a few days away from school, we have an opportunity to gain perspective. No matter how busy our holidays are, most of us can’t resist the impulse to think about school and our students and the work that we need to do as soon as our break ends.

Now is a good time to use that impulse to create resolutions that can bring your dreams for a well-run classroom filled with successful, high-achieving students closer to reality. In honor of 2014, here are fourteen productive resolutions that you may want to consider adopting as part of your own teaching practice in the year ahead. Pick and choose what will work for you. If you would like to share your own resolutions, feel free to make comments. Learning from our colleagues is a great way to begin a new year.

Resolution 1: Respect your students. I know this seems simple, but too often we overlook what our students are capable of achieving because we are focused on what they don’t know or can’t do. Instead of seeing them as competent learners, we see them in terms of what they lack instead of what they are.

Resolution 2: Manage your stress. The last day of school is a long way away. Start employing as many simple strategies as you can to keep your work life and your personal life in balance. Using brief, purposeful actions to ward off the ill effects of chronic stress every day will make a huge difference in your fatigue levels.

Resolution 3: Plan as far ahead as you possibly can. For example, if you know that you are going to be giving a test in two weeks, you have time to create and photocopy it well in advance of the long line of frustrated teachers waiting their time at the copier on the day you want to give it. Knowing what your students are going to be doing for the rest of the year is a positive step that will make it easier for you to use class time wisely.

Resolution 4: Shake it up. No one says that lessons have to be dull to be effective. Use as many different strategies as you can to reach your students. Let them be creative and messy and loud if they are still learning at the same time. Don’t be afraid to experiment.

Resolution 5: Explore different ways to increase your own productivity. If, for example, you have a tall stack of papers to grade, instead of plowing through it with a red pen, investigate other ways to use those papers to help your students learn. Ask your colleagues. Use your imagination. Again, don’t be afraid to experiment.

 Resolution 6: Use the resources available to you. Create a PLN, open a Twitter account, explore Tumblr, check out the images on Pinterest, invite community members to speak to your students…the list is endless.

Resolution 7: See your students as partners in learning, not little vessels waiting to be filled with your expert knowledge. Involve them in planning, listen to their ideas, and ask important questions. Encourage your students to assume more responsibility for their own learning and then watch the positive results that can happen.

Resolution 8: Make every minute count. Use those tiny blocks of time that can go to waste in any classroom to keep students engaged and learning. Think door to door when it comes to instruction.

Resolution 9: Make a deliberate effort to try a new strategy or technique each week. Some will be fantastic, some will be okay, and some will stink, but you will expand your repertoire of teaching skills and that’s always a good thing.

 Resolution 10: Use your students’ strengths. When you expand on what your students already do well, you will find it easier to remediate their weaknesses. Don’t just focus on the strengths of individual students; capitalize on the strengths of the entire class, too.

Resolution 11: Keep moving forward. At this time of year, it’s easy to get mired in the muck of undone tasks and a seemingly endless curriculum. Take a deep breath. Plan ahead. Look ahead. Bit by bit you can build your students’ skills and knowledge.

Resolution 12: Solve problems. If you wanted to, you could spend your entire planning period complaining about your students and trying to fix blame for what goes wrong in your class. Instead of wasting that time, look at the setbacks in your school day as problems that you need to solve. With this attitude, you can move forward.

Resolution 13: Be the role model your students want you to be. For some of your students, you are the only one who will take the time to show them how to be successful, how to read, how to write, how to speak well, how to behave. Whether you want to be or not, you are a role model and far, far more important than you can imagine. Rise to that challenge.

Resolution 14: Take time to enjoy your students. Share a laugh. Appreciate the unique qualities that they bring to school each day. Rushing through each day robs you of the available joy sitting right there in front of you.

50 ACTIONS THAT WILL GRAB YOUR STUDENTS’ ATTENTION

From Discipline Survival Guide for the Secondary Teacher...

 

There are countless ways to wake up and shake up your students. Prepared teachers take the time in advance of the lesson to prevent their students from being bored in class. They combine various techniques and try all sorts of bold new approaches to get their students engaged in a lesson. Don’t be afraid to try as many as it takes to get your students in the fast lane to success when their attention begins to lag.

Although there are dozens of approaches to take, the following list includes some that are designed to meet the needs of just about every teacher. Mix and match and use these to experiment with the best ways to keep your students on task.

1.Put a humorous drawing on the board or on the overhead or give your students chalk and have them draw a sketch on the board of some of the facts of the lesson. You could also ask the right-handers to use their left hands and vice versa. Asking blindfolded students to draw some of the facts from the lesson also helps focus their attention.

2.  Stage a confrontation. Have another adult come in and fake a high-stress situation that relates to the material the class is preparing to study.

3.Use Christmas tree lights or other colored bulbs to spotlight a part of the lesson.

4. Hold up a box and ask students to guess what’s in it. Items can relate to the unit being studied.

5. Do you speak French? Pig Latin? Try speaking in another language for a sentence or two.

6.  Write on the board three quotations that don’t seem to be related to one another and ask not just how they are related to each other, but to the day’s lesson as well.

7.  Use music. Play raucous music or ask your students to identify sounds from a tape. Play bits and pieces of songs for students to put together to make sense of the lesson for the day. You can even sing to your students or have them sing to you.

8. Show a film montage.

9. Move the desks around or ask students to trade places with each other.

10. Hand out blindfolds and have your students put them on. Give them objects from the lesson for them to identify without peeking.

11. Hold a visualization session where your students imagine themselves as successful people, or on a deserted island.

12. Wear a costume to class or have your students wear costumes. Even simple accessories such as ties or hats can spice up a lesson.

13. Hand pupils a notice as they come in that says, “Today will be a silent communication day. No pupil is allowed to speak. All communication must be done through writing.”

14. Create a giant puzzle from poster board and magazine pictures you’ve collected and glued to the board. Assign each student a piece of the puzzle and then have them work together as a group to solve it.

15.Whisper or pantomime the directions you want your students to follow.

16. Pretend to be a talk-show host. Have props and procedures as close to the real thing as you can.

17. Ask students to identify the pieces of a word or sentence relevant to the lesson. Write the letters or words on construction paper. Then hand out these so that students can unscramble them to recreate the relevant word or sentence.

18. Promise a treat when the day’s work is done correctly.

19. Time as many activities as you can. Students work efficiently when they work to the clock. You can also put a student in charge of timing an activity or ring a bell or buzzer when the activity is over. Another way to keep students focused through timing is to announce that a change of pace is about to happen and then begin a countdown. Timing pupils almost always causes them to focus on the activity at hand and mentally prepare for the upcoming change.

20. Videotape your students in action. Even a mundane activity is more interesting when your students are given the opportunity to “mug” for the camera.

21.Give pupils a checklist of the high points of the material they will be studying and ask them to tick off the points that are covered in your presentation.

22. When you ask students to take notes on the day’s lesson, focus their attention with a list of the key words and phrases you want them to learn.

23. Announce that you intend to make deliberate errors on the board, on a handout, or in your speech and ask your students to catch you if they can.

24. Offer extra points for the first person to answer a question or for the person who can give the best answer.

25. Play a tape recording of yourself giving information or, even better, of your students giving information.

26. Show a videotape of other pupils modeling the same work you expect yours to do.

27. Get out the colors! Even older students enjoy using paints, crayons, and colored chalk to brighten a lesson.

28. Give your students soft play clay or other gooey stuff with a specific task to accomplish with it. It’s hard to be bored and to play with something gooey at the same time.

29. Plan an imaginary field trip to the place under discussion. Your students can brainstorm all sorts of information with this activity.

30. Hand out lengths of ribbon or string and have your pupils tie them together, make shapes with the various pieces, or invent other activities that apply to the lesson.

31. Make name tags for your students. There are many different ways you can use this strategy in your classroom. Your students could role-play the names they have been given. You could place the tags on your students’ backs so that they would have to work with other students to try to figure out the roles they have been given. You can also use name tags in group activities to assign various tasks.

32. Hand out pictures of people and have your students make guesses about the people in the photographs, match them up, notice specific details, or use them in other activities.

33. Revive that old game of telephone to get your students paying attention to the facts and figures in a lesson.

34. Have your students vote to respond to questions by signals, standing, holding up signs, or other ways that appeal to their sense of fun.

35. Counting down from 10 to 1 will alert even the most mature students that they need to focus on you, and not on their classmates or daydreams.

36. Ask someone to stand to answer a question. Be sensitive when doing this, however. Ask several students to stand—not just one child you want to single out.

37. Count off your students into teams.

38. Ask everyone to stand and do a series of silly movements such as touching their left elbows with their right hands or putting both hands on their heads. This will generally shake out the cobwebs.

39. Hand your students a newspaper or magazine with words missing and ask them to supply the missing information.

40. Show a cartoon that pertains to the lesson and ask students to create a caption for it.

41. Present a slide show. Even better, ask your students to prepare a slide show about a school event, a lesson in class, their interests, etc.

42. Present prizes for the best presentation, performance, answers, etc.

43. Hold a drawing for prizes.

44. Have your students make up signs or posters about the lesson.

45. Turn the lights low to signal a change of pace.

46. Ask riddles to stimulate interest.

47. Use computers in your classroom. Even the most routine tasks are more fun and are easier when students get to use computers to do them.

48. Give your students food to sample.

49. Put a list of words on the board and ask your students to determine what they have in common. Use this to change the pace of a lesson. Adding unlikely names or words to the list will force your students to stretch their minds.

50. Take photographs of your students in action during a lesson.

Ten Quick Review Ideas for the End of the School Year

By this time in the school year, many of us are out of fresh ideas when it comes to reviewing for exams or standardized tests. While you may already know some activities that will appeal to your students, you may want to break up the routine just a bit. Try some of these activities to increase retention and have fun at the same time. Ask students to:

1. Use individual whiteboards to write and then share responses to questions.
2. Have students make three dimensional graphic organizers with main ideas. See who can make the most complete graphic organizer within a set time limit.
3. Divide a paper into several blocks and write a review fact in one of the blocks. They then ball up the paper and toss it to a classmate who adds a different fact. This continues until all blocks are filled.
4.  Create flashcards and study them together. Quizlet.com is a great online site for this activity.
5. Write captions to photos, cartoons, and other illustrations about the topic.
6. Play board games based on the topic or create and play their own board games.
7. Tell classmate two facts. That classmate has to repeat them and add two more. Continue around the room
8. Hold a contest to see who can write the most about the topic within a time limit. Share with the class.
9. Create their own “legal cheat sheets” to use during a test.
10. Have students record a series of facts or other important information on their phones and listen to the facts over and over until they know them.

 

Become a Charismatic Teacher

 

 

Who wouldn't relish the idea of becoming a charismatic teacher? Being the person who makes students feel so important that they would never miss your class or forget to do your homework or talk back? When you were first deciding on a career in education, the chances are good that you did not daydream about unruly students making your life miserable. Instead, you thought of all of the students who would thrive in your classroom.

    

Fortunately for the millions of teachers working in today's schools, classroom charisma is not a mysterious quality. The basics are quite simple. The tricky part is that you can't forget to work on your charisma. You will begin working on it on the first day of class and you will still be working on it on the last day of class.

 

Here are a few of the basic tenets of classroom charisma that you can adapt to meet your needs. Sart with the ones that you can manage with ease and then move on to work on the ones that are harder for you to manage.

• Your class should be about your students and their work. Make them the focus of your attention. Some inexperienced teachers make the mistake of talking about their own lives too often while ignoring students, who are quietly tuning out.

• Recall those teachers in your past who seemed to have that something special that made their classrooms an enjoyable place to be. What can you take away from those teachers that you could use know with your own students?

• Smile at your students. No one likes a grouch. A teacher with a pleasant demeanor has half of the charisma battle won. What if you don’t feel like smiling? Do it anyway. You owe it to your students. Remember that your difficult students are the very ones who most need your smiling support.

• Stand at the door to greet your students as they come into the classroom. You should greet your students to convey the message that you are glad to see them.

• Overlook what you can. Although it is certainly OK to be strict with your students, there is a fine distinction between a strict teacher and a too-strict teacher. If you spend your day quibbling over minor problems with your students, you will not have enough time to attend to larger issues.

• Early in the term, establish the procedures and routines your students should follow, and then stick to them as much as reasonably possible. Students who know what they are supposed to do and how they are supposed to do it are much more comfortable than those who are uncertain about what you expect.

• Laugh at yourself. While you should not be the focus of the class—your students and their work should be—you should let your students know that you have enough confidence to not take yourself too seriously.

• Make sure to eliminate distracting personal habits that might annoy students. Some of the most obvious behaviors that interfere with classroom charisma are a monotone voice, poor eye contact, sloppy speech patterns, and distracting gestures.

• Charismatic teachers talk less than their students do. Ask questions that will encourage students to share their ideas with you.

Stay Out of Trouble: The Do's and Don't's of Your School Computer

One of the most exciting moments of any new teacher orientation program is the issuance of  school computers. No matter what type of computer you are issued, it is exciting to be connected with all of the other employees in your district and to have access to the same resources that are available to them. Being issued a school computer also means that new teachers have to adopt a professional approach to the way that they use this ubiquitous tool. After years of working on personally owned computers, many new teachers are not always sure of the behaviors that

are acceptable and which ones are not even though they may have signed a document outlining their district’s acceptable computer use policies. To make sure that your use of your school computer is as professional as possible, be guided by these do’s and don’ts.
School Computer Do’s

• Do remain aware that the computer is the property of your school district.
• Do be cautious, conservative, and professional when using your school computer
• Do transport your computer in the case or bag that was issued with it if you have a mobile devices
• Do periodically go through your files to keep them organized and up to date.
• Do back up your work to an external drive on a regular basis.
• Do follow your school’s protocols for saving to a school network.
• Do use bookmarks to keep your topics easy to find in a hurry.
• Do use your computer only for school business.
• Do create passwords for your various school accounts that are logical, easy to recall, and can be updated periodically.
• Do respect the intellectual property rights of others.
• Do make sure to lock portable computers in a secure place  if you don’t take them home each day.
• Do keep your virus protection updated.
• Do report problems with your computer as quickly as you can.
• Do remember to take your computer to school each day.

School Computer Don’ts

• Don’t download any software program without permission—preferably in writing.
• Don’t have food or drink near your computer. Spills can be costly.
• Don’t forget that your email account may be monitored by district personnel.
• Don’t leave your computer unattended if you have to leave your classroom.
• Don’t allow students to use your computer.
• Don’t use other teachers’ accounts without their permission.
• Don’t visit sites that could indicate that you are not a good school employee such as pornography or extreme political views.
• Don’t decorate your computer’s case with stickers, images, or anything that has not been approved.
• Don’t open suspicious attachments that could infect your computer.
• Don’t share your passwords with others.
• Don’t conduct personal business on your school computer.

 

How to Have a Great First Day of School

As an experienced teacher with more than thirty-five "First Days" to my credit, I am all too aware of just how important the first day of school can be for teachers and students alike. In the writing that I am doing right at the moment, revising the second edition of First-Year Teacher's Survival Guide, I focus on the first day and how teachers, both experienced and novice, can make that day as special as possible and get their students' year off to a fantastic start.
     In this post, you will find three exerpts from what will be the new book next spring. One is just some ideas that may help you plan a good first day, another is a template you can tweak to help you plan that day, and the third is a checklist of things that you will have to manage on the first day.
     I hope these make your first day a positive one for you and for your students!

“ACTIVITIES FOR THE FIRST DAY

 In addition to the day’s lesson and class expectations, your first day of class can include many other activities to engage students in meaningful work. Using the planning template in Teacher Worksheet 4.3: Planning Template for the First Day of School and the checklist in Teacher Worksheet 4.4: Checklist for the First Day will both make it easier for you to make sure that the first day of school will be a productive and positive one  for your students. When you are trying to decide just what you want your students to do on the first day, consider some of these activities:

• Fill out forms together. While you are explaining your class expectations, students can fill in the information on a handout instead of just listening passively.
• Photograph students in their new school clothes on the first day of class. This is a good way to begin your class scrapbook.
• Show examples of the supplies they need.
• Pass out colorful paper, and ask students to write on it what they can contribute to make the class a better one for everyone. Display the papers in a giant collage.
• Issue textbooks, and have students skim their new texts, looking for items in a textbook treasure hunt.
• Have students work with a partner, telling that person one thing that they can do well and one thing that they would like to learn how to do. Have partners introduce each other to the class by sharing this information.
• Ask students to write you a brief note, telling you three things you need to know about them so that you can teach them well.
• Place a large sheet of paper on the wall. Hand students old newspapers or magazines, and have them tear out words and photos that describe their strengths and talents. Focus on what students have in common. Glue the photos and words in place to create an instant piece of art that will interest every student.
• Have students jot down what they already know about the subject you are teaching and then share this information with the class.
• Have students fill out one of the student inventories you’ll find later on in this section.
• Give students handouts with questions directing them to find out what they have in common with their classmates. Some possible areas to explore are hometowns, hobbies, favorite movies, pets, vacations, and sports. Go beyond the obvious and include attitudes for success, goals, or other mental traits.
• Have older students create bookmarks with inspirational messages for younger students.
• Have students play a people bingo game where they try to discover interesting facts about each other. Items to include on the bingo board could include types of pets, hobbies, past school experiences, favorite colors or foods, siblings, strengths, or favorite sports just to name a few.
• Ask older students to recount a memory from their earlier first days of school.
• Put a quotation or unusual word related to the day’s lesson on the board, and ask students to tell you what they think about it.
• Have students write exit slips explaining what they learned in class on their first day.

TEACHER WORKSHEET 4.3: PLANNING TEMPLATE FOR THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

While not all of these items may be applicable for your class and for your students, this template can give you some idea of how you will want to plan for your first day.

Opening Exercise (Time Allotted: _____________)

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Supplies, Materials, Books to Be Issued (Time Allotted: _____________)

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Student Information Forms and Inventories to Be Used  (Time Allotted: _____________)

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Rules, Policies, Procedures  (Time Allotted: _____________)

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Introduction of Self  (Time Allotted: _____________)

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Welcome to Class Activity  (Time Allotted: _____________)

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Forms that Need to Be Sent Home  (Time Allotted: _____________)

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Fees to Be Collected (Time Allotted: _____________)

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Icebreaker Activity  (Time Allotted: _____________)

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Lesson  (Time Allotted: _____________)

Teacher input________________________________________________________________

Student activity______________________________________________________________

Closing  (Time Allotted: _____________)

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

TEACHER WORKSHEET 4.4: CHECKLIST FOR THE FIRST DAY

In this checklist of the most important things you must accomplish on the first day, you will find reminders of the tasks you will have to manage.

o   Stand at your classroom door to offer your assistance to those students who may need help in finding their new classrooms.

o   Meet every student at the door and direct them to their assigned seats.

o   Begin learning your students names as quickly as you can.

o   Introduce yourself to your students.

o   Teach an exciting lesson guaranteed to make your students want to learn more.

o   Begin building a classroom community among your students.

o   Set about creating  a positive identity for your class.

o   Help your students get to know each other.

o   Distribute the necessary forms and the welcome packet that your students must take home.

o    Project an attitude of enthusiasm and positivity about the class, the year ahead, and your students.

o   Begin gathering data about your student’s levels of readiness, learning styles, and knowledge of the material in the course.

o   Begin teaching the rules, procedures, policies, and expectations for your class.

o   Make every student feel comfortable and welcome.

o   Assign an appropriate homework assignment to help students transition from vacation back to school.”