5 Things To Do During Back to School So The Rest of the Year is Successful -

The start of the school year can be filled with excitement, nerves, and endless to-do lists. To set the tone for a great year ahead, here are five things you should do during back-to-school season.

These tips will not only make your life easier but will also set your students up for success.

Build Relationships

Building a positive rapport with your students from day one can significantly impact their motivation and engagement.

Getting to know kids is easy when they’re well-behaved and follow rules. The ones that are difficult to get to know are the “challenging” kids.

I recently learned about the 2×10 strategy. Spend two minutes a day for ten days getting to know those one or two “challenging” kids.

Once you have built that relationship, those kids have your respect and you have theirs.

When you build relationships with students, your classroom management will be easier to handle.

Establish Clear Expectations and Routines and Practice Them

Relationships, expectations, and procedures go hand in hand.

Consistency is key to effective classroom management. By establishing clear expectations and routines, you create a structured environment where kids know what to expect and what is expected of them.

Don’t assume kids know anything about how your classroom is run. They had a different teacher last year. And summer break! They need to be explicitly taught what your expectations and procedures are.

And then they need to practice, practice, practice.

Practice during parts of the day that they naturally occur in. If you want kids to line up a certain way, have them start practicing 10 minutes before you need them to line up.

Have kids model for the rest of the class the “correct” and “incorrect” way.

One of my favorite books for successfully setting up my classroom management is Whole Brain Teaching for Challenging Kids by Chris Biffle.

Don’t let the title deter you. This book is for classroom management for ALL kids.

It’s a great system that is completely free to use. No need for treasure box toys or candy. I’ve used it for years and have always been successful. You don’t need to do what the book says step by step. Make it work for you.

Teach kids to Explicitly Work Independently and Practice Stamina

Developing students’ ability to have the stamina to work independently, is crucial for their academic growth and classroom management.

Begin with short, simple tasks that students can complete on their own. Gradually increase the complexity and duration as their confidence and stamina build.

Keep a record of their time increase and celebrate their growing stamina.

You can practice stamina for any literacy or math tasks you expect them to do independently throughout the year.

It can be independent reading, writing, or a math worksheet.

When you’re practicing stamina, it can get boring and repetitive. So the secret is to make it engaging.

I like to hold a boot camp where every day we practice increasing our stamina. The kids get dog tags and we celebrate their achievements. It makes it a whole lot more fun!

Establish Open Communication with Parents but Set Boundaries

Strong communication with parents is essential for student success. It takes a village! But it’s also important to set boundaries.

At the beginning of the year, let parents know how they can get in touch with you and what your office hours are.

Use some type of app or school system messaging service where parents can message you during the school day. Make it clear that you might not be able to get back to them promptly.

Sometimes just being able to message the teacher, makes parents feel better about whatever it is they’re concerned about.

During the first few days of school, jot down at least one positive thing about their child and send home a note about it or give them a call.

Or call each family before school starts and introduce yourself and tell them you’re excited to have their child in your class.

Starting with positive communication helps establish relationships with parents when it’s time to contact them about something negative.

Plan Engaging Lessons and Activities

We want kids to say, “I can’t wait to go back tomorrow!” when they come home from school, especially that first week.

Plan engaging lessons that will make students excited about learning. This makes them want to return day after day.

It’s hard coming back to school for some kids because they LOVE summer break. I mean it’s hard for some of us adults too.

Making lessons engaging from the beginning of the year, sets the tone and creates a love of learning in your classroom.

And when kids are excited about learning, they are more likely to participate actively and retain information.

You can do fun review games that cover the content they should have learned in the previous year.

Do science experiments or do STEM challenges that teach kids how to work in a group.

These lessons don’t have to be over the top. It can be as simple as a bingo game to review syllable types or grade-level math skills.

When you build strong relationships, establish clear routines, foster independence, maintain open communication, and plan engaging lessons, you create a classroom where you and your students thrive.

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