It’s almost that time again! Time to go back into that classroom, to get things cleaned and organized, and to plan out all the great lessons you will teach in the coming weeks. How do you handle the demands on your time, energy, and sanity?
As each school year approached for me, I first pulled out my calendar to keep myself motivated and on schedule. Without negotiation, I created my “To-Do” calendar and then I made myself get started! So, what did I add to my calendar? Here’s the run-down:
- At least two 40-hour work weeks were scheduled for curriculum mapping and lesson planning
- 2 days were allotted for cleaning, organizing, and reorganizing my classroom
- 1 day was granted for making copies, laminating, and hanging classroom posters (Expectations)
- 1 day was set aside to create and recreate seating charts for each of my classroom configurations (Rows versus group activities), and for creating and pre-addressing post cards I would send out after the first week
- 1 day was assigned for the final classroom preparation where I drew the welcome onto my board, set up my first day’s activities, and laid out all of my first day materials (Syllabus, Expectations, Notebook Template, etc.)
- 1 day for calming myself down and regulating my adrenaline before the kids walked in, some motivated and some not!
I know! This totals up to 3 full weeks BEFORE the required Opening Day and PD days! But, with this non-negotiable plan, I started my school year off with much less stress and anxiety than others I saw in my building. I was able to enjoy meeting my students, I could take time to make early phone calls or to send emails, and I actually ended each of the first days of school at a reasonable time instead of spending my evenings there, worrying about what I would be doing the next day!
And if you need help on those back to school lessons, take a look in My TpT Store! You might even find activities you can do on that very first day to make it go, oh, so much easier!
Happy Teaching!