That first day of school can be
nerve wrecking whether you are a veteran teacher with years of experience or a
first-year teacher straight out of college.
You want the first day to be
perfect. You want to have fun, but also set the tone for the year. You need to
establish your schedule, expectations, routines, and procedures so the rest of
the year will be flawless (ha! we wish).
I am taking some of my free time
(between binging on Netflix) to reflect on some of these things. A new school
year brings a chance to start new procedures or revamp old ones. I wanted to
share some of the things on my mind with you.
Classroom Policies
*Supplies: Table supplies have always been a
weakness for me. I use table caddies and they start off strong, but they always
end up messy by the third week. This year I am going to follow through with
maintaining organization of table supplies. I plan to implement a new class job
that will monitor their table throughout the week. How do you want your
students to get their supplies when needed? What if Johnny lost his scissors?
What if table 4 is out of glue sticks… again?
Moving About
*Bathroom: I have a good system in place for
students needing to use the restroom, but it could be a bit better.
Occasionally I forget when someone is out of the room, I have to quickly glance
around and see if anyone is missing before I allow a student to go. Those few
seconds are instructional time I do not like to waste. To solve this problem I
am going to use hand sanitizer bottles like passes. Students will know not to signal
for the bathroom if the bottle isn’t in it’s ‘home’. You can get my hand
sanitizer labels for free HERE. Will your students ask or
signal to go to the bathroom? Will they use a pass or sign out?
*Pack Up / Dismissal: Ugh! The most chaotic part of my
day is pack-up and dismissal. I start out with a firm routine
and then a crazy-hectic day comes in and throws us off. It is hard to recover.
This year we have specials at the end of the day and will need to pack-up
before. I am hoping this will help prevent the chaos. Will you call tables to
pack-up? Do you need to sign agendas? When a student is done packing up, where
will they sit? What will they do until they are called for dismissal?
Organization
*Homework: I have a designated spot in my
room to turn in homework. When I check homework there are always papers with no
name on it. It drives me CRAZY! I don’t have this problem with classwork,
because students highlight their name before turning it in. Next year I will
enforce highlighting your name on your homework too. Where do students turn in
their homework? Will you check it or a student? When will it get checked? What
if they didn’t put their name on it?
Lesson Procedures
*Early Finishers: Inevitably, no matter how well I
thought out a lesson and included enrichment, Johnny is always done early. His
work is correct, there is no sending him back to “check” it. A few years ago I invented the Brownie
Points box
for early finishers. Last year I had a different procedure in place. What will
Johnny do when he is done? Will you have a system in place or will they read
quietly?
*Answering Questions: I never considered this procedure
a trouble spot, until I visited Ron Clark Academy. Wow! Every teacher MUST go,
that school is inspirational. One of my biggest take-aways was how the kids answered
questions and responded to each other. They don’t raise their hands, they just
pop-up and speak. I started this towards the end of last school year, and plan
to implement it from day one next year. Will you have your students raise their
hand? What if they have a question while you are working with a small group?
You can sit and ponder these
things in between Netflix shows or at the pool, but my friend Jessica over at Notes from the Portable and I did all the thinking for
you. We answered these questions plus many, many more in our Teaching
Tips and Time Savers ebook. Whether you are a
super-organized teacher or a little more relaxed we have multiple strategies,
tools, and forms for you. We also provided editable classroom forms to make
your life easier.
Jessica also has 29
Things You Need to Know Before the First Day of School! Hop on over and check out her
list… she has FREEBIES! J
