How to Introduce Yourself to Students on the First Day of School
[Image Description: The image shows the front of a school building made of gray brick and large clear glass windows with a set of entrance doors and large gray walking path made of cement in front of the doors. The name of the school is blurred. There are three flagpoles on the left with the American flag on the middle flagpole and part of a blue flag on the flagpole on the left side of the American flag with a cloudy blue sky. My bitmoji displayed as a smiling woman with long, curly, brown hair wearing a red dress, and taupe open-toed sandals is standing at the front of the sidewalk and waving.]
If you are a first year teacher or pre-service teacher, do you have a hard time knowing what to say to tell students about yourself when introducing yourself when you first meet? Do you feel bad when you do not say much about yourself? This applies to student teachers, practicum lab/Field Experience interns, childcare center floaters, substitute teachers, any other types of teachers in training, paraprofessionals, Therapeutic Support Staff (TSS), Personal Care Assistants (PCAs) and classroom volunteers. This even applies to when education majors are introduced to students in a classroom that they come to observe in. Sometimes mentor teachers will give specific introductory prompts for the new or aspiring teacher to share about themselves; however, it can be difficult to think of what to say if you are innocently put on the spot by just being asked, "Is there anything that you would like to share about yourself, Miss/Ms./Mrs./Mr./Mx. (Name)?" If this is something that you have a hard time with, you are not alone because I used to be the same way! Here are some icebreaker tips for introducing yourself to students of all ages:
1. If you are an observer, tell them your name and that you are there to see the things that they are doing for the day, week, or however long that you are staying to observe for if none of the teachers in the room have not told them why you are there already.
2. If you are a former student of this teacher, tell the students about how much of an impact this teacher made on you when you were their student. You can do this before or after the teacher has already told the students that you are a former student of theirs.
3. Just keep it basic. Tell them your favorite color, subject, activity, holiday, animal, place to travel, etc. Mentor teachers and first year teachers of students whose ages range from anywhere between 2 1/2 years old to first grade can also prompt their students to introduce themselves with a "My name is XXX and my favorite color/animal/holiday/etc. is. . ."
"When I grow up, I want to be..." also works as an introductory prompt. Of course, you the teacher are already grown up and know what you want to do as a career. So, to answer this question for your students, you can tell them what made you want to become a teacher.
4. If you like to read, tell them what your favorite book is or which book genres that you like to read.
[Image Description: The image shows the cover of the book called "Wonder" written by R.J. Palacio. The book cover has a light blue background with "THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR R. J. PALACIO" in right-aligned white text in the top left corner. "ARE YOU READY TO MEET AUGGIE PULLMAN?" is in right-aligned white text in the middle of the cover. "WONDER" is in center-aligned enlarged white bubble text with Auggie wearing a yellow shirt, dark green sweater, and blue jeans with his astronaut helmet representing the "O" in "WONDER." "NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE!" is in right-aligned yellow text on the right side of Auggie's arms below the title. "Includes full-color movie photos and exclusive content!" is in right-aligned white text on the right side of Auggie's hands. "With a foreword by STEPHEN CHBOSKY author of THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER" is in right-aligned white text in the right bottom corner of the book cover.]
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5. Tell them about an interesting place that you have visited. While it can be a state or country that you went on vacation to, it does not have to be. It can be somewhere really cool that you have taken day trips to, such as Philadelphia Magic Gardens, Peddler's Village, Hershey Park, or Sights and Sounds Theatre.
[Image Description: The image shows the wet sand and blue ocean waves rolling on Ocean City, New Jersey's beach. There are two people in the water, one of which is standing in deeper water while the other person is closer to the shore and bending down with a yellow bucket. Part of a wooden chair is pictured on the left side of the image. There is a snapchat filter that says, "hello from OCEAN CITY" in overlayed center-aligned white text with "hello from" in cursive text and "OCEAN CITY" in printed text at the bottom of the image.]
6. Tell them what your hobbies are whether it is bracelet making, ceramics, traveling, reading, writing, cooking, baking, sports, exercising, watching movies, volunteering, etc.
[Image Description: This image shows a ceramic chicken bank on a wooden table in a ceramics lab. The ceramic chicken bank has a round body painted in brown glaze, comb (red part on top of its head) painted in red glaze, slightly open beak painted in orange glaze, large and bulging eyes. Ceramics machinery and plastic bags are displayed and blurred in the background.]
[Image Description: There is a bacon and cheese omelet with home fries laying on a glass white plate.]
7. Tell them about your pets if you have any. Pets are something that children of all age groups can relate to. If you do not have any pets, telling them about any past pets that you have had or what your favorite animal is are alternative options.
[Image Description: There is a golden retriever laying on a beige tiled floor. The dog's head is resting on the floor with its paws stretched out in front. The dog's eyes are open with a sleepy or relaxed expression. The bottoms of chairs with metal white legs are pictured in the background with the floor'S dark red and light and dark blue tiles.]
8. If you are a parent, you can tell them about how many children you have along with their genders, names, and ages.
9. Keep a specific fact about yourself in mind that you can share whenever prompted. This gives you a chance to rehearse it and make that it is something that you are comfortable sharing. When I would do fieldwork observations in former fourth grade teacher's classroom for my college classes during my time as a toddler teacher, I would tell the students that I taught babies.
[Image Description: There is a white thought bubble outlined in black with light pink ballet shoes inside of it. The thought bubble has a light orange background with my First Former Buddy Club President logo in the bottom left corner of the image. "FIRST FORMER BUDDY CLUB PRESIDENT" in center-aligned black Marker Felt font overlapping an enlarged light blue heart with several small red hearts and a light blue background in the background of the enlarged heart.]
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10. You can even just respond with, "I'm so happy to be here! What would you like to know about me?". There are plenty of students of all ages who love to ask fun fact questions. So, this open-ended introductory question opens the door to that opportunity. This is the response that I started giving when observing in my former fourth grade teacher's classroom and on my first day of my Field Experience internship in third grade for my Bachelor's Degree. This led to fun facts like, "What is your favorite color?", "What is your favorite animal?", "What made you want to be a teacher?", and even "How old are you?" (Not all but some adults are offended by this question and to each their own, but I LOVE it SOO much! It is so fun letting students guess my age and hearing their funny guesses that show that I am younger than I actually am. One student guessed 13 when I was 24 and one of my third graders guessed 15 when I was turning 25😂).
11. If you are an introverted teacher yourself, there are plenty of friendly ways to introduce yourself to students to build those necessary teacher-student relationships. You can provide "About the Teacher" handouts to each student and their families. If you teach at a school, you can post your background information on your teacher page. If you teach in a childcare center, you can hang an "About the Teacher" biography on the bulletin board outside of your classroom. If you are an administrator in a childcare center, you can create a bulletin board in the entrance area of the childcare center that includes teacher biographies as well.
[Image Description: There is a white information sheet that says "meet the TEACHER" at the top of it that I used in a past classroom that I taught in. "meet the" is in center-aligned cursive black text with "TEACHER" in center-aligned bubble text in red, orange, yellow, dark green, light blue, light purple, and medium pink. There is a photo of me on the left below this text with an "about me" section on its right side with a white text box outlined in black with round corners that says "contact" in center-aligned cursive black text. "about me" is in center-aligned cursive black text with a square-shaped white text box outlined in black below it. "Hi families! I am Miss Emily and I am so excited to about pre-service teaching in 3rd grade at Bryn Athyn Church School for my field experience placement this year! I am currently a junior at Bryn Athyn College majoring in Early Childhood Special Education. I also have my Associate's Degree in Early Childhood Education from Bucks County Community College and Child Development Associate certification. I have previously taught 12-24 month olds in a childcare center this summer I started working as a part-time floater at Schoolhouse Learning Center Southampton. I was born in Philadelphia and moved to Lower Moreland when I was 9 and I currently live with my parents. I also have a brother who lives in New York. I love teaching because I enjoy making a difference in the lives of children and their families. I am looking forward to rest of the school year!" is in left-aligned black text in the white text box. There is another rectangular-shaped white text box outlined in black titled "my favorites" in center-aligned cursive black text. There is a smaller white text box outlined in black below this title that says "COLOR: Pink; FLOWER: Rose; MOVIE: Wonder; ANIMAL: Panda; QUOTE: 'Choose kind.' -Auggie Pullman; FOOD: Sandwich wraps" in left-aligned black text on the left side. "CANDY: Candy corn; HOBBY: Volunteering for nonprofit organizations; BOOK: Wonder; HOLIDAY: Christmas; SUBJECT TO TEACH: Social-Emotional Learning; SUBJECT TO LEARN: Writing and Art" is in right-aligned black text on the right side.]
Including "About the Teacher" slides in a slideshow to show to your students on your first day together and/or at Back to School Night also works.
[Image Description: A turquoise background with "All About Miss Emily Hoff" in center-aligned bolded black text in a rectangular text box with bolded black borders at the top. Below this text box, there are 6 white dot points with left-aligned white text written next to each. The text next to the first dot point says, "Pre-Student Teacher." The text next to the second dot point says, "A.A. in Early Childhood Education PreK-4 from Bucks County Community College." The text next to the third dot point says, "Child Development Associate (CDA) certification." The text next to the fourth dot point says, "Graduating with my B.S. in Early Childhood (PreK-4) Special Education (PreK-12) from Bryn Athyn College in May." The text next to the fifth dot point says, "6th year teacher." The text next to the seventh dot point says, "First former Buddy Club President. There is a circular red, white, and black Bryn Athyn College logo on the right side of the text next to the seventh dot point. In the top right corner, there is my First Former Buddy Club President logo. My logo has "FIRST FORMER BUDDY CLUB PRESIDENT" in center-aligned black text in the marker font overlapping an enlarged light blue heart, which is overlapping several dark red hearts with a lighter blue background. In the bottom right corner, there is a selfie of me with white borders on the left and right sides. In the selfie, I am smiling and wearing a dark red blouse with light pink flowers on it, a gold colored crucifix necklace, and my long, curly, brown hair with a pink and gold colored headband with 8 small white pearls across it in front of bright pink walls.]
12. Include one icebreaker that prevents making introverted, shy, and socially anxious students feel uncomfortable. Sometimes these populations of learners feel uncomfortable in certain icebreakers that require them to stand up and talk. Teamwork activities or written introductory activities can work for this matter.
Giving choices of prompts to answer including "What did you do this summer?", "What are looking forward to in the new school year?", "Is there anything special that you would like to share with the class?", and any of the above suggestions is also an inclusive practice for these populations of learners as well as a Trauma-Informed Care and Education practice. Some students who experience trauma may have had an uneventful summer or experienced traumatic events during their summer unlike some of their peers. So, "What did you do this summer?" may be an uncomfortable question for them. You may also not feel comfortable modeling an answer to this question yourself if you experienced anything traumatic during your summer because you are human too.
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13. Teachers' roles in attempting to help students of all ages make friends is very important. How to do this with infants and toddlers is much different than how to do this with preschoolers and up since their language is so limited as compared to older age groups. When I was an infant teacher, I opened circle time with the Circle Time Song by The Kiboomers and I would encourage the infants to clap along to the music with me (and they would! 😊).
When I was a toddler teacher to twelve to twenty-four month olds, my co-teacher and I sang Look Who Came to School Today at circle time every morning. We would sign "school" (two claps) throughout the whole song and high-five each toddler at the end of their turn. The lyrics of the song are:
Look who came to school today,
(First Name)! (2x)
Look who came to school today,
(First Name) did!
Another song that I made up to the tune of Farajaka was Where Are My Friends? Throughout the song, I sang a question that asks where a certain child is, and each child gets a turn. Whenever I sang this song, the toddlers loved hiding and laughing whenever it was their turn. When I sang the last line, they would usually pop out or I would find them. The lyrics of the song are:
Where is (First Name)? (2x)
I don't know (2x)
Where is (First and Last Name)? (2x)
There they are! (2x)
All three of these icebreaker songs can be sang with children ages birth through Kindergarten. Of course, infants will not be able to understand the words; however, it is still a great social activity for them that is great for their language development and interactions between each other along with you and them to build their social-emotional development. It builds relationships and the more that you do it, the more that it will impact their development.
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For more information about my job as a teacher and tips if you are a first year teacher or pre-service teacher, please click on the links below to blog posts that I have written about my field:
- Let's Talk About the Pennsylvania Code of Professional Practice and Conduct for Educators
- Why Professional Development Opportunities Are Important for All Teachers
- How and Why to Build Relationships in School
- What is Collaboration in Education and Why Is It So Important?
- FAQs About My Former Job as a Lead Infant Teacher
- FAQs About My Job as a Former Toddler Teacher
- Infant/Toddler Teachers Need to be Valued More as Teachers
- Diversity in Education
- Incorporating Nursery Rhymes into Early Childhood Games
- Best Children's Books for Teaching About Awareness and Inclusion of the Disability Community
- Trauma-Informed Practices for Supporting Children with Incarcerated Parents
- Trauma-Informed Care and Education Practices in Infant Classrooms
- How I Helped My Former Young Toddler Class and Their Families Feel Safe at Childcare While in a Pandemic
- Bullying Prevention Month 2023: Bullying Prevention Stimulation Activities for People of All Ages
- My 43 Favorite Classroom Affirmations
- My Top Favorite Teacher Supplies
- I Have Mixed Emotions About Standardized Tests
- Are Standardized Tests Really Helping Students?
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