Hi all! The beginning of the school year is always busier than I anticipate it will be. This- ideally- was supposed to be a post of surviving, and thriving, the first day or week of school…
Now, it’s still about that, but it’s also including the first few weeks of school.
A lot happens during the first few weeks of a new school year. New names to learn, a new schedule to navigate, new data to collect and analyze, all of these different priorities demanding to be addressed right now and not nearly enough time to get to everything.
Or, so it feels.
The purpose of this post is to reflect on my own strategies for diving into a new school year, along with starting the conversation of how other teachers handle this transition back to school. I’m hoping some of my strategies will be helpful to those of you reading, but I want to clarify that this is not a guide to running the perfect, absolutely most efficient back to school season. Having done this for a few years now, I’m confident that “perfect” is more concept than reality for just about everything, and education is no exception.
However, I also know that the pressure to “get it all right” is alive and very real to many teachers. My goal here is to try to address some strategies to unpack and reframe what it means to “get it right.”
Anticipate feeling overwhelmed
Being overwhelmed is not a fun or pleasant experience. It’s equal parts feeling like you messed up by not preparing properly and stress as you try to fight your way through the feeling as fast as possible.
During my first few years as a teacher, I thought the key to avoiding the back to school overload was to plan and prep my little heart out before students ever set foot in class. I thought: if we’re planned through October in September, we’ll be fine. And, don’t get me wrong, I’m still an absolute planner when it comes to my classroom, but, now that I’ve done this a few times, I realize that some degree of feeling overwhelmed, or, maybe a better way to put it is “whelmed,” is inevitable as the new school year starts.
For one, I’ve found that planning too far ahead, while it’s always good to keep an eye on the future, limits the flexibility you have when tailoring your lessons to the students you have in your classroom. Getting to know your students at the start of a school year’s essential: it shapes so much of how you run your classroom.
Not to mention, even if I was technically planned all the way through Thanksgiving Break, inevitable schedule shifts, assemblies, unexpected absences, and other bumps along the way would still demand some flexibility of that plan. And my lesson plans were only half the battle: start of the year diagnostics, SGOs, PDPs, bulletin boards, before and after school activities, meetings, and so much more, all of it comes flying at you in what feels like one big blur.
2. Not everything has to be done right now
This one in particular still can be a struggle for me. I’ve always felt like my patience is split into two camps which could not be more different. I feel like I’m good at being patient with my students, understanding that things take time, and going with the flow in the implementation of lessons. However, when something’s asked of me, not the students, I want to get it done, while still getting it done well, as soon as possible.
But it’s not like, on the first day of school, a ten-mile to do list is dropped off in my mailbox and due at the end of the day. Most of the “Beginning of Year” activities I’m responsible for completing aren’t due until somewhere between the end of September and the middle of October.
Prioritizing activities, keeping track of when something needs to be done, is crucial. Your sub binder probably needs to be in during the first few days of school (in case you have an unexpected absence), but SGOs might not need to be finalized until October. It can be so tempting to want to push to get through everything as soon as possible…but that’s just not sustainable, for you or your students. Leading by example with the kind of work ethic you want your students to adopt- being responsible and on task but not pushing yourself to the point of stress- is a good way to set a sustainable tone for the year.
3. Set reasonable goals for yourself
This point largely connects to #2 on this list and it circles back to my tendency to plan (positively, this time!). Not everything has to be done all at once…but it does need to get done eventually. Creating a to do list or a calendar that keeps you both on target while not burning the candle at both ends…that’s the goal.
This point is short, but I felt it needed to be said. I’ve been in a lot of fantastic classrooms where teachers encourage students to set personal and academic goals. This is something that I think shouldn’t be forgotten on the teacher end of things: make a goal that can be done, track your progress, and celebrate when you make it!
4. No matter what, things will go wrong
You misread your schedule. The number of students in your class changes. You accidentally printed tomorrow’s materials for today.
No matter what, things will go wrong. This is true not only of the first day, week, or month of school; it is always true.
What’s important is how you handle what goes wrong. Being able to think on your feet is an essential skill for any teacher, but it can be daunting. Especially during those first days of school, when you’re trying to make a solid first impression, you just want everything to go right.
But that’s not always the most realistic expectation.
It’s important to plan and prep, but it’s also important to consider these opening moments of the school year as kind of a stress test. What works and what doesn’t, and don’t be afraid to change something that doesn’t work. You don’t have to commit to a routine that isn’t working just because it’s something you did in the first week.
This also goes beyond just being the teacher in the room; we want to teach our students to be flexible. We want them to be able to roll with the bumps along the road. By modeling that kind of reflective and calm behavior, we’re setting positive examples for our students, telling them that it’s not only okay when things go wrong, but, to some degree, it should be expected.
5. Don’t underestimate the importance of soft skills/take the time to get to know your students and let them know who you are
This last one is kind of a two-in-one, but they’re so closely related that I thought they’d benefit from being in the same point.
It can be tempting to dive right into content as soon as the new year opens. After all, we only have so many days to cover a set amount of content. But the soft skills, like building a routine, returning to a school schedule, feeling out the personalities in your new class, they all take time.
For the students, but also for you.
Developing a rapport with your students might feel like a “waste of time” at the start, but it accomplishes two things. One, it shows students that who they are and what they feel is a valued part of the class. And that, aside from being something we should want every student to feel, encourages students to put their all into the class going forward. You can minimize disruptions and distractions throughout the year by developing a rapport and routine with your students early on.
Two, striving to create this rapport with your students shows them that you’re human too. You will make mistakes, you do exist beyond the confines of your classroom, you were once a student to and you remember how it felt to be one back then. These are all statements that are so easy to take for granted, but not all students make this connection on their own.
All of these strategies essentially boil down to these general ideas: plan, but not too much, own your mistakes, try not to stress about being stressed, and recognize that it takes time for everyone to adjust to being back in a new school year.
I hope this is helpful and good luck out there!
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