Welcome Back!
Having had a summer being told how lucky you are to have such long holidays while managing your time to accommodate: planning for the new term, gathering resources, transforming your classroom AND hopefully spending some time relaxing and enjoying yourself, it is now September. No matter how many years you have been teaching, you may still be a bit nervous about the beginning of the new term, as though somehow you may have forgotten how to teach over the summer holidays!
Fear not. You know full well that after five minutes it will seem as though you never left but also you now have your class! A whole (possibly new) group of children to inspire, to guide, to ignite a passion for learning in!
Whether you have the same familiar faces joining you this year or a completely new class and maybe age group, here are some handy ice-breaker tips to start the school year with a bang using ClassVR:
CREATE A CUSTOM PLAYLIST
Create a class playlist on the portal by searching for topics suggested by the students. You can preview them together. This will allow students the opportunity to talk to each other about their ideas and share ideas with you, giving you more of idea of their interests which could prove very useful during the year.
SCHOOLS AROUND THE WORLD
Look at the School Around the World collection and get them to create thought bubbles to show what these students might be thinking or feeling. These can then be discussed to help gain an understanding of what your class might be feeling but also allow you to communicate ways of dealing with those emotions without making anyone feel put on the spot.
PLAY A GAME!
Play a 20 questions game whereby one student looks at a VR experience and the rest of the class have to ask questions to try and guess what it is. E.g. Is it inside? Is it hot? Are there any animals? The student wearing the headset can only answer yes or no.
COLLABORATIVE WORKING
Have students work in pairs or groups with one person wearing a headset per group. They must describe what they can see while the others in the group use paint, pastels or crayons or to recreate the experience. At the end, they can compare their pictures to the real experience. These pictures could even be added to a display about the importance of communication.
