Jarrod Brooks – Teacher of the year – Middle School - I use warm-ups for a number of different reasons in my classes. My students have physical education once a week for forty minutes. While they are in my class, I would like them to be as active as possible, and this starts with our warm-up. In years past, the students would come in and sit on the center circle. This allowed me time to do attendance, and introduce the day’s activity. Over the past couple of years I have transitioned away from this to a more active way to get the children focused and ready to learn.
Jennifer Quevedo - Teacher of the year – Secondary - We often think of warm-up activities as a means by which to invigorate our students. Usually that is great, yet sometimes we might benefit from using these precious first few minutes of class for a different purpose. We’ve all had a class where the wiggles and giggles dominated the instructional time, or the group who comes flying into class so enthusiastically they lose track of the impact of their actions on others, and we’ve had groups that seem unable to find common ground or work as a group. At HHS we’ve been looking at student wellbeing and how to use mindfulness to help reduce stress and improve student learning. As part of that, we are also looking at how students interact with each other, how they understand the impact of their actions on others and ways to help students be more caring and connected citizens. This presentation will offer some activities that are geared toward helping students regulate their energy, slow their pace, and perhaps even collaborate. Reflective practices can certainly be interwoven with these activities, too.
