If you're wanting to feel ready and prepared for a great new semester then you have come to the right place! Doing these things has made a big difference! I truly believe that if you "front load" before the school year and have these things done before your busy school schedule begins, your semester will go lots smoother and you'll feel a lot less stressed!
Plan Your Scope and Sequence
When I say "scope and sequence" I just mean planning what topic you'll teach and the activities you'll do each day. This can be as brief or as detailed as you like!
If you have taught before you probably already have lessons planned for each topic but if you haven't taught before it's okay to only know what you will cover that day but not know exactly how yet. That can come later!
I prefer to first look at my school calendar and I actually print out a Calendar At A Glance to help me easily plan my scope and sequence. This helps me to know what the dates are and when we have holidays or days off. I first go through and put in all the dates on my scope and sequence.
Then I decide the order I'll teach the content in my class and start to plan! I love using a digital scope and sequence (you can get my scope & sequence template here) because it's easy to copy and paste, or cut and paste to move things around as I am figuring it out.
Obviously things will change a little as the semester goes on but I really like having a plan. Trust me, this will help you to feel a lot less stressed during the school year!
Create/Update Class Disclosures
Class disclosures (do you call it a disclosure or syllabus??) are something you need ready for the first week so having these updated and ready to go before school starts is a great idea.
I don't have parents sign my class disclosures-- instead I have them take a parent survey through a Google Form! I feel like the class disclosure is for the students and parents don't ever read them anyway. I let students take a copy of our class disclosure home if they would like but they are not required to.
I put a QR code on the disclosure that leads to a parent survey but I also link it on our LMS. Each year I change the QR code to the new semester's parent survey so that I don't have everyone going to the old Google Form.
I create the QR codes using the QR Code Generator chrome extension that I talked about in THIS blog post. I do have a disclosure document template and a parent survey template in my TPT store if you're interested.
Create/Update Class Supply Lists
You may or may not have a class supply list. But if you do, this is something you will also want to have updated and ready to go before parents and students come and meet their teachers.
I like to have copies of the class supply list as well as QR codes that take them to the class supply list digitally, and I also hang up the class supply list on the board so that they can simply take a picture on their phone if they wish to have it that way.
Plan in Detail What You're Doing the First Week
If having your whole semester planned out isn't gonna happen, at least know what you're doing the first week! Think through the details so you can feel fully prepared & not have that stress added to the nerves you may feel.
Think through what supplies you'll need, what copies you'll need, and how much time you'll have. If there are activities you are doing in the first week that require prep, have that done before school starts. I promise it will help you feel more relaxed and ready and things will go smoother.
I love to play First Day Twisted Jeopardy on our first day of class! I also love doing First Week Learning Stations where I have students do things like read the class disclosure and answer some questions about it, take a student survey for me to get to know them more, submit song requests for our class playlist, and create a One Word Goal for our Goals wall.
Have Classroom Procedures in Place
Think through classroom procedures before the school year starts cau
se it's important to start off enforcing them from day one. Have students start practicing your class routines from the moment they step into your room!I
For example, my classes all do a bell ringer first thing when they come into class and I start that on day one so that it becomes habit & they know no different. Think about things like:
Where will students turn in their work?
How will students seats be determined?
What does the start & end of every class look like?
How will you deal with students leaving to the bathroom?
What will be your phone policy?
Lots of things to think about but decide what you will do before the first day and then stick to it! Being consistent is the KEY.
Get Your LMS Ready
My district uses Canvas as their LMS and I found it helpful to have my class Canvas courses ready to go before the school year starts. Taking the time to do it before the busy school year starts means having less stress during the school year!
There's always things you will be editing as the year goes but doing as much as you can before school starts helps. Students will also appreciate knowing ahead of time what is coming up. I also would take time to link updated class disclosure and class supply lists as well updating the links for parent and student surveys.
Make As Many Copies As You Can!!
I already mentioned making copies but seriously, make as many as you can!! The more copies made BEFORE your first teacher contract days the better because we all know the line in the copy room will be long!!
I started doing unit packets in most of my classes so I could just print and make copies of those packets before school starts. It minimizes forgetting to make copies and then scrambling the day of.
I also recommend getting your copies made BEFORE your first teacher contract days if possible because otherwise there is usually a long line in the copy room!
I hope this was helpful and I wish you the best of luck in your upcoming school year!!
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