Let's start at the very beginning...

Is school a gathering?

I read this over the summer.  Very interesting.  

The author--a pretty big time consultant on how to host gatherings, big and small--convinces me that it's important for gatherings to start with something engaging, meaningful and relevant (to the purpose).

Don't start a funeral with details about the parking arrangements, she says.  Print those on a card that people get on the way in.  Or "publish" them somehow before the service.

So I got to thinking that coming to school is a kind of gathering.  We can't make each of the 180 days into an event that would make a gatherings consultant smile, but we can bend our creativity toward adding elements that will make some or most of the days a little different, better, and engaging.  And we can think about the whole "project" of the school year as a kind of slow motion gathering. 

Somebody in the book mentioned a sort of bizarre opening act to their gathering.  They left the room sort of disorganized, and let the guests navigate that.

So here is my room arrangement for the first day.

I will stay outside the door--far enough that students can't see me once inside, and greet everybody on the way in.  

Whatever they do--make a circle, make small group clusters, stand around unsure what to do--we'll have something to talk about, something to consider, something to shape our efforts to form ourselves into a kind of social unit.

I want to see what they do with the situation, then ask them what they were thinking, and how the group dynamic worked (or didn't).

Haven't done this before, and it may not achieve what I'm "hoping" it will, but then my "hopes" are not the point.  They'll do what they do, and we'll navigate from there.  In other words, this will be the launching pad into conversations and activities about building our community together.

I'll let you know how it goes.