Episode 54: The New Student Welcome Wagon
Welcoming those students who, for whatever reason, have joined your class late can be a real challenge. You want to help them adjust to the new class environment and community but may not have time to familiarize them with your classroom set up and the students there in the same way you could at the beginning of the year when everyone was in a new situation. In order to be ready and welcoming to students no matter when they join your classroom, here are some steps you can take to make the transition process as smooth as possible— for you and the students. The inspiration for this episode was months ago— I new student welcome kit was making the rounds on Pinterest—one mostly containing classroom supplies, which sparked its own debate. Recently, I’ve had a number of new students, and the issue has come up again. While it probably won’t be necessary to provide your students with supplies, having something ready and waiting to go and a plan for how to integrate them in the class will help make things easier for everyone involved. The New Student Welcome Packet: An actual welcome letter (a pseudo table of contents for the packet) Copy of the syllabus Copy of the classroom rules/policies/expectations (you probably have this hanging in your room) An overview of who you are (perhaps you by the numbers or something you usually hand out to get parents getting to know you) A student intake survey Log in information/how to create accounts for websites used All the handouts you have created to date that they will need for the midterm/final/etc. Schedule for when things need to be made up/turned in if needed How do you include them in class? Partner/group work that YOU assign