Last Monday was the first day of school.
Because I got a long term in a vacant art class, and because I got to start a day before, I had prepared a first day of school ice breaker assignment. A scavenger hunt.
I listed a few things that I knew would be true for some kiddos. Find a student who has a first name that does not contain an A. Find a student who went away on a trip this summer. Find a student who has a family member at the school. (I often hear about kiddos with siblings at the school, so I knew someone would.) Find a student wearing black.
First thing in the morning, I headed for the copy room to make copies of the scavenger hunt. I had four (slightly) different versions on two sheets of paper (half sheets for each kiddo). I also had a questionnaire that asked things like name they wanted to be called in class and what their favorite food was.
I was not the only one who had things to copy to start the school year. And two of the copy machines were broken (naturally).
When it was my turn, I first copied the questionnaire. I had taken a quick count of planned students and got something near 180. I made 180 copies of the questionnaire. Then it was time to copy the scavenger hunt. I had two sheets of those, so I'd only need half the copies. Half of 180 is 90.
Did you catch my mistake?
I finished my copies, and then I left the machine to the next person in line. (The line kept growing. We were all kind of scrambling.) I headed for the paper cutter as the scavenger hunts were half sheets.
As I started cutting, I realized my stupid. I was right to halve my number, but I should have halved it again as I had two sheets with two scavenger hunts each. I only needed 45 copies.
The school opened two new art classes. The art teacher next door is new to the school, and we've been kind of leaning on each other. She's helping me with art stuff, and I'm helping her with other school stuff that new teachers don't necessarily know (like how to set up the online gradebook).
We were comparing notes as to what we were going to do with our classes. I mentioned the scavenger hunt. She thought that was an excellent idea. And as I had double the copies I needed...
They didn't go to waste after all.
And the activity went surprisingly well. The kiddos got into it, but they didn't get crazy. I will totally use this again if the need arises.
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