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After my first day activities, which (I hope) build some community and positive culture in my classroom, I like to begin Day 2 by introducing my debate format. I have a whole blog post sharing more of the details of how I go about it here. I just wanted to show the two start of […]

After my first day activities, which (I hope) build some community and positive culture in my classroom, I like to begin Day 2 by introducing my debate format. I have a whole blog post sharing more of the details of how I go about it here. I just wanted to show the two start of debate activities I used in my classes. The earlier blog post describes all the steps I follow. Note: The debate activity only lasts 5-10mins. If I have a small enough class, I try to get everyone to stand and say one claim/warrant...but I also feel out the room and stop if we're getting repetitive or I'm losing engagement. In Calculus class, I started with this slide: In my Integrated Math 3 (Alg2-ish) class, I started with a Which One Doesn't Belong. The first slide was: I then dive right into our first Unit. During this time, I have students go to the board to do problems, introducing another routine of my class. Using Vertical Non-Permanent Surfaces (VNPSs) is something I blogged about here. I have 6 different dry erase boards around my room for students to work on in pairs or groups of three.