I seem to always look back fondly of my days at school. I guess that’s a big reason why I’m a teacher now. One of my favorite teachers of all time asked us a question each day during attendance. In place of shouting “here” the students would answer the question. I thought that was the COOLEST thing. So now as a teacher, and wanting to get to know my students, I’ve implemented the question of the day as well. I’ve been doing it for a few years and I totally love it. And most importantly so do my students. So this blog post is a list of the ways that you could use a Question of the Day for school in your classroom.
1) Attendance: Distance Learning
Aside from just using these questions of the day to call attendance in your classroom, they make great attendance prompts for distance learning. If your students are required to sign in, or make their presence known, putting a question of the day in Google Classroom is great. You can insert it in classroom by clicking “Create” and then “Question.” This will time stamp the student submissions and allow you to give a “grade.” You could also do this in Google Forms, if your school doesn’t use Google Classroom. Forms will also time stamp, and it will even organize the data collected into a Google Sheet for you!
2) First Day of School Ice Breakers
I hate ice breakers and get to know you games. I think they’re all really cheesy, and don’t really give you an opportunity to really get to know people. They bombard you with useless facts about students that really have no bearing into who they actually are. Asking real genuine questions is the way that I like to go. I will often use the roster to quiz myself on the kids faces. I call “Sally” and scan the room looking for her face. Going through and asking a few questions each day for the first week or so is so helpful for remembering names. Plus it gives me some more information about the kids. In addition, the kids get to learn about their classmates, so lunch, gym class and group work get to be a bit less awkward, since they’ll already know some things about each other.
3) School or Classroom Announcements
Give everyone in the school building something to talk about as soon as the day starts. These conversations can pop up anywhere and everywhere. Seriously, running a lap around the track can easily turn into “Would your rather sky dive or bungee jump?” And who knows, that could be a lifetime friendship in the making! Plus if these announcements come on first thing in the morning, we can get a creative boost at the very start of the school day.
4) Do Now Questions or Morning Meeting Questions or Brain Breaks
If you have a morning meeting, with your students, this could be a great, non-academic way to get them to wake up a bit. These questions could also be great for a brain break. This is a great way to turn off the logic and problem solving part of the brain for a minute to build the creative side. My school recently switched from 9 periods in a day to a 4 block schedule. My students sit in the same class for a long time, so these questions help to give us a short break as we move from one activity to the next.
5) Journal Prompts – Question of the Day
If you have your students journal at all, you can add a “why” to many of the back end of these questions to have them evolve into a journal prompt. I teach chemistry so this isn’t really something that I would do, but it could certainly be applicable to a writing class or lesson.
6) When Class Ends Just 2 Minutes too Soon
There is maybe nothing worse than when your class ends just a few minutes too soon. The kids start packing up, and then hover near the door. And then of course, admin is walking down the hall and gets on you about “bell to bell instruction.” I can only say that because I’ve been there once or twice. But not anymore! When class ends just a few minutes too early, I prompt the kids with a question that has nothing to do with chemistry. It gives them an opportunity to learn more about each other, have a bit of a “break” before moving on to their next class. Plus it covers me for those two minutes, and keeps my classroom in order. Idle hands, amirite?
7) In the Cafeteria
Plop a few of these on index cards on the tables in the cafeteria and give kids a chance to get to know each other. This works especially well with the kids who are a little shy. The cards give them an excuse to talk to kids that they otherwise would be too shy or embarrassed to approach. I find that when you don’t push the use of the cards, they actually get more use. That probably has something to do with the fact that I teach high schoolers, and basically everything I do is lame…
So you’re interested in these questions of the day, right? Well you can get a free list of my 180 questions of the day by clicking here!
