Transcript

I work at a school that is intimidating. We have students coming into the sixth grade who are coming from lots of different feeder schools, so they may or may not have friends in their class. We are in two buildings, they're going to be on a 10 day cycle, and they're going to have six or eight different teachers to go to, so they're a little bit frightened when they come to our school. A couple of things I do to make them feel welcome is when they come in the room I have a poem ready for them on their desk, and the poem is in a little baggy and the baggy has little items. The penny, which is in the baggy, is to remind them that they are valuable. The lifesaver is to remind them that they can always come to me, hopefully I'll be a lifesaver to them and help them. The bookmark is to remind them to read every day. And the eraser is to remind them that everybody makes mistakes and that's how we learn. And the chocolate hug, who doesn't like chocolate, helps to comfort them when they're sad, and it happens to everybody. And the sticker is to remind them that as a class, we're going to stick together, and we're going to help one another do the very best we can. 

The other thing that I do to make them feel welcome is there's a letter on their desk and the letter has their name on it, because I have the class list which I've already received from the office, so I just put in their name. And the letter tells them a little bit about myself, it tells them a little bit about my background as a teacher, my education, and things that I like to do, and that I'm inviting them to write a letter back to me and tell me some information about themselves. And so the students write letters back. First they do a rough copy, and we talk about how to organize a letter, and then I take them to the computer lab, so it's also a good opportunity for me to see what their computer literacy skills are. When I get the letters, then I post them up on the board, and for the Open House Meet the Creature Night, when the parents come they have somewhere to show their parents that they've already done some important writing activities at school.