The first few moments of class are critical for a variety of reasons, but the main reason for really focusing on those first few minutes is your entire lesson could be a success or failure depending on whether or not your students are engaged from the beginning. I love talking to teachers about warm-ups. I love hearing different strategies and ideas. One of the most powerful pieces of teacher advice I have to give is there is power in sharing the why or purpose behind your lesson right away. Our brains are hardwired for the information of “why am I here?” to feel safe and to create a sense of belonging. On another level, your warm-up helps unlock your classroom environment. You make students feel welcome with a warm-up.

So, how do you start class?

I have started my middle school English Language Arts class in a variety of ways. I sometimes rotate my warm-up strategies based on the grading marking period or trimester. I sometimes keep things that work well, and then I toss out other things that don’t. I almost always come back to some form of creative writing or choice reading with conferences.

I love and hate the self-help book section. It is packed full of gems like Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life, and many others that make the wheels in my teacher-entrepreneur brain go crazy. However, I also have visions of myself as the teacher that is seen staring at the self-help book section in a bookstore with a crazed look in her eye, teacher bag thrown over their shoulder, dark bags under each eye, that just seems in need of...help. How many of us can relate to this image as we struggle with the teaching profession as a whole and the day-ins and day-outs of being a teacher? Enter in why I picked up this cute little blue book by Penquin press. I was tired, and it seemingly seemed to address a question I ask myself all the time:

Is teaching my purpose in life?