Teachers, do you know how to prepare for the new school year and then what to focus on that first week? Many teachers get stressed just thinking about it, because it’s important to start off on the right foot.
Thinking about the beginning of each school year always produced mixed emotions in me. I was excited to get going, but I was having some butterflies and feeling a little stressed with the work that needed to be done to get the year off to a good start. I always had trouble sleeping the night before school started.
I would usually go to school at the end of August, as many teachers do, to get my classroom set up and organized.
Every teacher has their own routine, some don’t set up their classroom until school starts, but whatever you do, you have to know what you’re doing that first week of school because your students are testing you like you’re testing them.
These are some of my suggestions to start the year off right.
1. Layout of the classroom
A comfortable, friendly, and colorful classroom creates a very positive learning and social environment for your students.
You can make your classroom a place your students want to be with classroom decorations, classroom displays, and bulletin boards. Displaying a student’s work for others to see is also a great way to boost their motivation and self-esteem.
You can set up student seating in different ways, although I personally arranged student desks in groups of 4-6. Eventually you have to socialize and work with all kinds of people later in life, so why not start now?
Once your students are settled in, let them have a say in some of the decisions about classroom layout, displays, and seating arrangements, though you need to be mindful and they need to know that you have the final say.
2. Classroom Supplies
Each teacher will order their school supplies based on what they determine to be essential. Students and teachers will have different requirements depending on the grade, but here is a list of the basics:
* Pencils and pens (for older grades)
* Ruler
* Draft
* Notebooks (one for each subject, math books must have graph paper)
* Striped paper
* Blank 3-hole paper (different colors, used for science or social studies units)
* Tags
* Duotangs (many boxes of different colors)
* Markers (great variety of different colors)
* Experienced graph paper (lined and graphed)
* Meters/Yard Sticks
* tissue paper (a variety of colors)
* Blackboard chalk (great variety of different colors)
* Chalkboard erasers
* Construction paper (all different colors)
* Powder paint and brushes (powder lasts longer than liquid)
* paper cutter
* Ice cream sticks
* White glue
* Scotch and tape
* Kleenex tissues
3. Activities in the classroom
At the start of each new school year, I set myself three goals for that first week.
1. My main objective is to learn more about my students and that they also learn more about me and each other. I do this using several different games and activities in the classroom. Here is an example of one of the games I use.
I call this game “My Favorite”. The goal was for the teacher and students to learn everyone’s first name and to know a few things about each other. Now this is how it works.
* To play you need a big soccer ball or similar.
* Everyone sat in a large circle.
* I would start with the ball and think of a favorite thing, eg “food”.
* Say “My name is Mrs. Krumholz and my favorite food is ice cream.”
* I would throw the ball to any student. The student receiving the ball will say her name and her favorite food and roll the ball to another student.
* Get the idea? Any student who received the ball would have to roll it to someone who had not yet received it. Eventually everyone had their turn. The last person to have a turn in a round, would start a new round and get to choose a new “my favourite” topic.
2. My next goal was to get my students focused on their schoolwork again after a full summer of vacation. I started with a review of the previous year’s work. For example, you would have made up 15 math questions or given students a spell check of words from the previous year, grammar sheets, etc.
3. My last goal for the first week was to establish the rules of the classroom, explain the agenda to the students, and make sure that the students understood what was expected of them during the year.
So a few final words: get ready, get organized, be yourself. But above all be thankful that you have a job that you love or really like and ENJOY!