Introductory first lesson

[tumnamen]

I'm teaching in a girls middle school, and my co-teachers told me that I should prepare a lesson to introduce myself.  My students are in exams all day today so i can't observe them, and see a bit of what they are learning.  I have also been given no guidelines for the lesson.  Im planning on making it a full class, but what kind of information should i cover?  So far i am talking about my family and my pets.  Any suggestions to get the students involved and make it more interesting would be very welcome.  Unfortunately I have no internet in my office-tel yet, and will only have internet until 4:30 or so.  I really want to make a great first impression for my students.

[peateacarrot]

I'm in a similar situation myself. An idea I thought of was to outline the type of behaviour you expect in the classroom and what things you encourage or discourage, for example 'no use of mobile phones whatsoever in my classroom'. I know this idea isn't very fun or interactive but it's always important to make you role as teacher clear to the students.

[mattjb]

As long as you use a lot of visuals, i.e. pictures, the kids will like it. This is a good way to involve them because you can illicit things from them as well, such as what's this, what's he holding , etc. When I did my introduction lesson, I introduced my friends, family, country, etc. And then 3 things that I like: food, sports, and movies. Then I had them all introduce themselves saying their name and three things they liked. It was pretty simple and fun.

[tumnamen]

Matt, that is pretty much what i did.  I either gave them pictures as hints or nothing and let them guess things like my age and stuff.  I got some really goofy answers to "How old am I?" Everything from 13-50 and then gave them a picture as a hint.  They seemed to really enjoy trying to figure out why a certain picture was up.  Then I let them ask me any question they wanted.  I tried to make sure they were really involved.  The biggest problem I have found is their their english levels are so vastly different a sentence like "I like reading" goes over some of their heads even with actions.

[jwilliams080]

to keep the self introduction interesting I would suggest, turn it into a quiz. I mean instead of saying I like sports.  say "question 1: what is my hobby? a) sleeping b) eating c) plaing sports d) reading books" (this works well in powerpoint, and makes sure in include visuals) Then after you finish, ask the students to write down at least 3 questions that they could ask you, and randomly call on students to ask you their questions. You can throw in a lesson or game in more time is needed. This is what I did and it seemed to work well enough

[Calgon]

Hey! I just posted an outline of how I introduced myself to students, and I came across this post. I hope this helps you out. It worked very well for me!

(copy/paste):

I had a lot of fun introducing myself to my students last week. I created a 30 minute powerpoint that goes like this:
1. About Me (name)
2. What is your name? (I ask kids their names, then I ask if they know mine)
3. How old are you? (I ask them, then they guess my age...you see the pattern)
4. Where are you from?
5. Who is in your family?
6. What do you do after school?
7. What do you do on weekends?
8. What are your favorite movies?
9. What are your favorite video games?
10. Do you have any questions?
11. Quiz! (Make sure the students were paying attention. Ask them your name, where you are from, hobbies, etc.)

This was a fun way for students to get to know me, and I in turn got to know a lot about them. Enjoy!

[ESLinsider]

Using visuals is a good idea. You could cover personal info. like where you're from, you're family, and your hobbies. Then maybe you can ask them some questions about their hobbies, etc. You could also add an icebreaker to it too. I made a video of one called "Line Up" that could be integrated into this lesson.