Back to School

 It’s that time again. (The dreaded JULY)

The time where we start to get anxiety about the new school year. The time where we start seeing all the back to school supplies in the stores. Personally, I start to slowly get back into my classroom and work on getting it organized and set up. Today I went and painted my desk with whiteboard chalk and became so overwhelmed with my to do list that I left and went home. I will try again on another day. I also like to reflect on previous classroom procedures to start to develop better procedures the new year.

I would like to use this section discuss how I start planning for my first week back to school.

As a new teacher, I would suggest you start by thinking about how you want your classroom to be organized and classroom management.

1. How do you want to set up your desks?
2. What do you plan to put on bulletin boards?
3. Do you want a particular color theme?
4. Where will you place extra school supplies in you room?
5. Will you have a reading corner/Classroom library?
6. Where will you store teacher resources?
7. What are your morning duty expectations at your school? (attendance, lunch count, take up snack money, excuses)
8. What materials will you need throughout the day? (Dry erase markers, post its, pens, markers, stapler?)
9. When will you give multiplication tests, reading tests, spelling tests, math?
10. Will you grade homework?

Classroom Management Questions and Thoughts to consider

1. Classroom rules ?
2. Behavioral rewards?
3. Consequences ?
4. How will you record their behavior? (Sign a Notebook, chart, Clip Chart, Pulling cards)
5. How will you communicate with parents? (Remind, Dojo, Notes home?)
6. Homework policy?
7. Attention getters? ( Class? Yes?)
8. How do you expect students to line up?
9. Will you have classroom jobs?
10. Bathroom policy and rules?
11. How will students get sharpened pencils?
12. Where will they keep their crayons, scissors, glue?
13. Where will you keep paper and textbooks?
14. Chromebook/ tech policy or digital citizenship rules?
15. Where and how will they charge tech?
16. Where will they place finished work?
17. What will they do when they complete class work?
18. How will you control classroom volume level?
19. Centers or learning stations?
20. How do you plan to organize small group?
21. Morning work/Expectations?
22. Packing up expectations?

It is essential for you to know how you want to organize your classroom. Something as small as a sharpened pencil will not seem so small on the first day of school when several students are asking where does this go and where does that go? The students need and want guidance, leadership and order. Keep in mind every first day of school procedure will not work and it is ok to revise the plan to meet your needs. Always remember that every class is different

You should use the first week or two to cover the classroom rules and procedures. Once you have developed your plan, you will need to create a welcome packet that includes your behavioral and homework. I turned my welcome packet into a brochure.