I'm a K teacher and curious to know how soon you start into your curriculum? Or how long you spend on procedures etc.
My kids are a few grades older so we start our curriculum on day 1. The procedures and routines are taught as part of the lesson then practiced as they come up daily. We've just found that it's better for classroom management to begin with as regular a schedule as possible right away. Again, I'm a few grades ahead of K so it probably makes a difference. Mine already know the basics of school.
I teach Fifth Grade and our first Day is a full day so we will gently be starting our stuff the first day but more of an intro of what we will be covering. The second day I will start the year. Keep in my mind though that my kids have been together since kindergarten.
I typically begin academics the second day, though I am in full force by the third or fourth day. The whole first week itself is basically an introduction of what we will be learning, though, with some small cooperative learning activities. For kindergarten, I'd say day 3-5 sounds reasonable.
I teach first grade and I start on day 1 with math and phonics. We have Everyday Math so the first lesson is really just calendar math. Day 2 I bring in the other subjects: handwriting, reading, writing, etc. Of course, for reading and writing workshops the beginning lessons are procedural. I would say by week 2 we are ready for actual writing and reading lessons.
For kindergarten, it is awfully hard to begin curriculum right away. You will make your year a lot easier if you spend the time necessary to establish routines and get to know the kids before you bring in curriculum. My K friend says it can take up to a month to get to curriculum, but she ends up saving teaching time by first establishing routines.
I teach first. We use Everyday math so I start right away on that. We have Houghton Mifflin for reading and the first 3 weeks are reviews of the alphabet--two letters per day, so I start right in with that also....so boring!
math is day 2 (our first day is a half day and with specials in there it doesn't leave much time for academics after we get everything sorted). science will start day 2 with a unit on inquiry. I start small groups and reading practices day 1 (with AR) but our story doesn't start until the next week. SS unit starts the next week. We use the SS time the first week to do kagan activities and teambuilding.
We generally start the first day, but like someone else said it is more or less an introduction. The second day starts it all for me.
I teach older kids, but I start on the first day. Math for sure, I generally do vocab in science. In reading, it is more strategies.
I do a little on the first day, but mostly procedures. I add a little more each day. Math is the easiest to get in on the first day.
I start Math and Writing on Day two, Reading and the rest on day three. Our reading series has a "Back to School" section that I do first. It takes about a week and gives me an idea where the students are currently.
We do the Back To School section as well. Luckily it does not take the whole time block that the regular series does so that gives me more time for procedures and stuff. I have to spend a lot of time on rules and procedures because the teachers in the grade below me have NO classroom management so I am fighting up stream with kids every Sept.
Certain subjects I delve right into on Day 1. Of course, I balance this out with lots of procedures, expectations and a few getting to know you type of activities throughout the week. Week 2 is when it is a "regular" week with all of the curriculum in full swing.
My county uses curriculum pacing guides, but since we begin school on a Tuesday, gives us those first 4 days to just get procedures and stuff going before we actually begin with the curriculm stuff.
We start some things the first day, procedures have to be taught with the activity or they don't make sense. We have a simplified calendar time the first day of school and that is very academic for kindergartners. The key is to start off slowly and make sure they can be successful in the academic activities you introduce to build confidence and positive school experiences before challenging them too much. They have to trust that you will help them if they need it and that they are in a safe learning environment before they will take the risk to learn something unfamiliar.
I start my curriculum day 1 but I stretch it out a bit so that I am teaching procedures and routines at the same time. I figure why teach something with fluff when I can achieve the same results at a slower pace with our actual standards. (Not to say that I don't make it fun and exciting, but I've found that there are less future behaviors because I'm not behind the curve I'm actually ahead of it!)
I don't touch anything (for the most part) in terms of actual academin school work for the first week. We drill procedures, rules, expectations, and getting to know each other for the first week. This year we start on Wed, so we will have 3 days of essentially classroom management and behavior. The next week is Labor Day so we have 4 days... and I usually ease in with a combo of math assessments to figure out where they are, and writing assignments that are tied into our "getting to know each other". Actual instruction and text books usually don't get passed out until we have our first full 5 day week. I do 4th grade... and I had a horrendous first year of teaching so I am OCD and anal when it comes to management from here on in.. lol.
I'm doing a lot of character building/conflict resolution education, so I'll probably start teaching the curriculum the 2nd week. I am not rushing because I'd rather build a good foundation, then struggle through the year.
Me too. I'm teaching 4th grade for the first time. I think at this age the kids start to go through the "I know everything" stage, so it is important to build that foundation before dipping into academics. I was a prep teach last year and my 4th graders were the most challenging. I don't think it is being "OCD". We just want our year to be manageable.
