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Dear Reader,

Oh, oh, oh, and jingle bells!

What's that confused look on your face? And what do you mean "it's not Christmas yet"? Then how do you explain this? 👇

I saw this, I kid you not, on Monday this week, i.e. 31 August. And because I am known for living slightly with my head in the clouds sometimes, I did for a moment wonder whether I was finally losing touch with reality. But a quick look at my phone promptly confirmed that it was indeed August and that it was not I who was losing their marbles but, I'm sorry to say, the shop owners, if they think August is Christmas time. I'll jump on the early-excitement-for-Christmas bandwagon any day, but hey, this was a bit much even for me.

Now that we have established that 'tis not the season to be jolly yet, what do I have in store for you today? Well, let's just say that around this time of the year, in my daydreaming head, I have visions of my teacher readers trying to convince themselves that summer is not over while also having to reckon with the sadly incontrovertible fact that yes, summer is indeed over.

And while I like a bit of self-delusion as much as much as the next gal, after a few years of teaching, I have now put on my big girl trousers¹ and started thinking a little beyond "first day activities" and a bit more strategically: what tone do I want to set for this year with my first day activities?

So, today, I invite you to come on this journey with me: we partially started with last week's newsletter, where we explored tasks to get done now so you can thank yourself later. Today, I will tell you about 4 activities to start the year off with intention: as Aristotle said, a good start is half the battle!

So, let's get a little drink for this first September Sunday and let's dive in 🌸

4 first day activities to foster motivation

Disclaimer: if you want something quick and easy, here are 10 easy back-to-school activities, tried and tested by yours truly.

My favourite for the past couple of years: summer bingo 👇

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But starting school with intention, to me, means fostering one thing in particular: motivation. I don't need to tell you this is something many students will be lacking, particularly as they have to get back into the habit of waking up outrageously early and dragging themselves to school. With these 4 first-day activities, I am to foster 3 aspects that are integral to motivation according to self-determination theory:

• Autonomy: experiencing yourself as having choice and agency
• Competence: feeling capable and effective
• Relatedness: feeling connected to others

Let's take a look at how these activities foster autonomy, competence and relatedness.

1. Find someone who... did things in English

If you've been reading me for a while, you might be familiar with Find someone who: each student has a worksheet, and they all stand up and mingle for a few minutes, asking each other the questions on their worksheets and noting down the names of the people who answer positively. The student with most names on their worksheet wins.

With this twist on Find someone who, students ask each other about their encounters with English during the summer: who has spoken English with someone? Who has watched a video in English? Who has listened to a song in English? And so on. With this game, and a little post-task discussion facilitated by the teacher, students can start seeing how actually, English does feature in their lives in a pretty unavoidable way. Having these realisations helps students see the relevance of English, which can help them build their motivation to learn it.

Keen on using this? Download my printable Word version, suitable for levels A2 and up: Find someone who post-summer.docx​

2. Scenario-based learning stations

Have you ever experimented with station rotation? If not, maybe this is the year you do! In essence, you create small learning "islands" around the classroom: these are your learning stations. For each station, you set up a task: in my example, you would give your learners real-life scenarios in which English might be required. In groups, learners spend a set amount of time tackling the task in each station; when time is up, all groups rotate, with each group moving onto the next station.

I would give students scenarios like:

You are visiting London with your family. You realise that you have left your phone somewhere, but you don't remember where. You need help finding it. What do you do? What do you say?

For slightly older students, I would also give them a little worksheet in which, after completing each task, they write down what words they were missing and what difficulties they had. This is fully in line with task-based learning, not to mention the actual reality of how we learn languages.

This activity again reinforces the relevance of English to the students' lives and it fosters a sense of autonomy, competence (because they could "survive" in English!) and relatedness, because of the collaborative element.

3. Teach the teacher

Did your students have summer homework to complete? Or if they didn't, what is one thing they learned about English during the summer, or that they remember from the previous school year? Individually or in pairs, students get some time to choose their topics and prepare their mini-lectures, then they teach the teacher!

This is not only a way to - potentially - review quite a lot of the homework, but it also helps students feel competent and, because they can choose their own topic, autonomous in their learning.

4. Things I want more of, things I want less of

In my grandiose attempt to combine the two very worthy goals of "getting learners to move about the classroom each lesson", and "helping learners take responsibility for their learning", one thing I have always tried to do is get students to use the board to express their own thoughts.

With this activity, you can split the board into two and write + (more) on one side and - (less) on the other. Students then come to the board and write what they want more and less of this year. They can write on post-its and stick them on the board, or they can just write on the board².

This might shock you, but I like to join in this activity, setting out my expectations of the class: for example, things I want more of include them speaking English, working collaboratively, and being kind to themselves and others; things I want less of are giving up, shouting (at least in the absence of mice or other wild animals that would warrant shouting) and excessive self-criticism. The activity fosters autonomy and makes learners feel valued, because their teacher is listening to and taking stock of their wishes.

And that concludes today's newsletter! What activities will you choose for your first day(s) back? What tickles your fancy from today's list? I'm always keen to know³!

Wishing you a lovely Sunday.

Take care, dear teacher ✨

¹ The idiom is actually "put your big girl/boy pants on" and it's eminently American. I, however, live in Britain, where pants = underpants, i.e. underwear. Speaking from experience, dear reader, this is a mistake you don't want to make.

² If you have no post-its and not enough many board markers, and you don't have an interactive whiteboard, just put students in groups and give them whatever markers you have, then a representative for each group can write on the board.

³ I can't always reply to all replies, as much as I try to, but rest assured that I always read you and replies always make my day (and subsequent days!)

P.S.: My weekly suggestion for things to listen to/watch/read to improve your English while relaxing: I have 2 things for you today.

First, here's a little book that I suspect would make for a good book club read: The Nine Lives of Rose Napolitano by Donna Freitas. In a nutshell: Rose doesn't want a child, her husband Luke does. Can she find it in herself to change her mind? The author takes us through 9 possible lives for Rose, all with different - but surprisingly similar - endings. I found these endings upsetting (I can't tell you why because it would be a HUGE spoiler but am happy to discuss offline after you've read the book) but also thought-provoking regarding motherhood in our society.

Speaking of thought-provoking: here's a little extra suggestion for early morning reading and potential warm up activities. It gives you lots of news snippets free of charge in your inbox and, crucially, it isn't AI slop, but human-created, edited and fact-checked content. I regularly get offers to include sponsored content to support the continued labour of love that is this newsletter, but this is the first one I've ever accepted. I think this is genuinely potentially useful content to read on your morning commute and, why not, turn into a "news of the day" warm up or WebQuest activity.

✨Cool things I heard this week

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