This will be my ninth year going back to school.
And I still get nervous. I still spend LOTS of time thinking about the first few days of the school year. Partly this is because I haven’t taught the same thing for more than two years in a row (I’ve taught grades 2-8 during this time. It just depended on the students coming up and what their needs were!)
This year, I’ll be teaching mostly seventh grade, and I’m thinking about how, even though this is (again) something new for me, I’ve had a lot of practice with sitting with the discomfort and uncertainty of a new school year, and developing some kind of plan for it–and this is very different from the very first time I planned for starting the school year as a brand-new teacher.
So this post is for the brand-new teachers (as well as the veteran teachers)! Anyone who is looking for some ideas and inspiration as they return to school.
Here are some pieces of advice:
1—Find a philosophy that you agree with and borrow their structure.
I LOVED using The First Six Weeks of School when I was planning for my fourth grade classroom. Everything within this program focuses on relationships both between teacher and students, and students and each other. It helps students to develop social and emotional skills in a way that serves their lives in and out of the classroom.
As a first time teacher, I loved that they provided sample schedules. I was eager to jump right in to academics, but this book helped me to realize that pairing with the students, helping them to learn and become invested in classroom expectations, and get excited about curriculum before it began was the best way to start. The book gave ideas for teaching routines early on so that by the time curriculum was introduced, the classroom was running beautifully.
The First Six Weeks of School was written for grades K-6. The book below is designed for middle school teachers specifically.
2—Don’t go overboard with the decorating.
This might be controversial, but this idea too, is based in Responsive Classroom. The idea is that children feel more connected to, and more a part of their classroom, when they are active participants. Responsive Classroom suggests covering bulletin boards and leaving headings, then filling in the boards with the students as the year progresses. You might have a heading for ‘Student Work’ or ‘Class Constitution.’ This helps students to feel real ownership of the classroom.
This is all easier, of course, in an elementary or self-contained classroom where students spend a majority of their time in the same room. However, the idea still works for older students as well.
3—Plan your first day down to the minute (then let it go).
This sounds crazy, but hear me out. When you allow yourself to envision every detail of your first day, you set yourself up to avoid some of those panicky moments. Start from the moment students walk into your room: How do they know where to sit? What will they be doing as other students are filing in? What should they do with their supplies?
If I know one thing about my years of teaching it’s this: students will ask you millions of questions. Set yourself up by figuring out answers to as many as you possibly can before they arrive.
I did this exact thing my first year of teaching. I had my fourth graders enter the room, find a name tag, and color in their name (this is something borrowed directly from Responsive Classroom. So simple!). I had them leave their supplies near their desks so that I could have a few moments to focus on taking attendance and the lunch count. I was ready to move on to the next activity when my principal called us all down for an assembly.
That’s the letting go part. Take it as an opportunity to model to your students how to take a deep breath and roll with it.
I still do this, by the way. It helps me to think less about logistics in the moment, and focus more on enjoying and getting to know the students right in front of me.
4—Learn names before you learn anything else.
This is so important! Someone’s name is a symbol for who you are, and kids notice when you’ve taken the time to learn them.
Depending on your district, you might have access to the students’ photos so you can quiz yourself before the first day.
My personal preference is to have name tents out on desks for that first week. I have students decorate them with symbols that help illustrate who they are. This way, not only am I learning their names, but I’m also learning who is rooting for the Giants come football season, who will be in the school play, and who is really into video games.
5—You don’t have to have all your systems figured out by day one.
This was a trap I definitely fell into. I wanted to know exactly how my classroom was going to run — confident enough to tell the students on day one — and by October, I figured the room would be a well-oiled machine.
This was not how it happened.
When I taught first grade (my second year of teaching, by the way), I struggled with the pack up routine. To be fair, there were 35 students, each of whom brought a backpack, a lunchbox, and a coat–winter, with its hats and gloves and boots was a whole different thing. I spent so much time thinking about the best way to tackle this, and eventually, probably during the winter sometime when I just couldn’t take it anymore, I found a solution that worked. It involved milk crates for lunchboxes, table captains for collecting them, and a lot of patience. With 35 six- and seven-year-olds, it wasn’t perfect, but it was much better.
For older students, I’ve even said, “Okay, that definitely wasn’t the best way to do that. Let’s brainstorm some ways to make that more efficient.” When they’ve had a say in developing the routines, kids are more likely to follow through with them.
6—Find your people before you need them.
You can do this even when setting up your classroom. Ask for someone’s opinion on the layout. Teachers are (usually) happy to help other teachers.
It can look like everyone else has it figured out, but they don’t. If you get lunch or planning time with another teacher, you’ll find out fast that even the ones who seem to have it all together are winging it some days too.
Ask for help when you need it!
A closing thought:
Nine years in, I still get nervous before the first day. I don’t think that ever fully goes away, and I’ve stopped expecting it to. What’s changed isn’t the nervousness — it’s that I trust myself to handle whatever the year throws at me, because I’ve done it enough times now to know I can. If this is your first year, that trust doesn’t exist yet, and that’s okay. You’re allowed to be scared and prepared at the same time. Borrow a philosophy you believe in, learn your kids’ names, build in grace for yourself — and the rest will come.