Before the First Day of School

 I only have five years of teaching under my belt, but nowadays the first day of school has its own routine that I have perfected figured out.  It works for me and it works for the students I work with.  Before I got to this point though, I had to do a bit of trial and error to find out what worked for me.  Here are some things teachers should think through before starting the first day of school.  If this is your first year teaching, Congratulations!  Good luck!  And seriously take some time to think through the things on this list.  If this is not your first rodeo, hopefully this list is a good refresher.

1.  Know your core values as a teacher.  This sounds like a bunch of new-age hooey, I know.  But if you don’t seriously sit down and think about what it is you believe your role is, what the role of education is, and what you want your students to walk away from your class with, then everything you do will seem (and probably will be) random.  For instance, one of my deepest convictions as a teacher is that teachers must care. Before anything else, a student must feel like the teacher cares about him/her.  If you can show your students kindness and caring, you will get a lot more from them.  Another of my deepest convictions is that I should have high expectations for ALL of my students.  Last year, my goal for my classes was 100% passing rate on the state exam.  My principal guffawed at me.  Seriously.  When I said, yes it’s my GOAL, and shouldn’t it really be an expectation?  His reply was something along the lines of my goals being a little too lofty.  I sat in my chair seething.  How dare he assume too little of my students!  And no, they did not reach 100% passing this year.  But they were at 83% as a whole.  I believe it is because I had high expectations for them. 

Every single lesson, activity, and decision I make in my classroom comes out of one of my core values.  Knowing these, I can explain all of my educational decisions with conviction.  Which is important when you have the principal/department chair/ well-meaning colleague/not-very-understanding parent wanting to know why you do things the way you do.

2.  Know your class expectations.  What rules/expectations will your students have every day?  Start simple.  For example, at my school we already have some general expectations set up (Be safe, be responsible, be respectful, be your best).  Then, from some of the general expectations, you can create more specific ones.  Ask yourself, what does it LOOK LIKE to be safe in the classroom?  Figuring out your expectations is the easy part.  Enforcing them can be the difficult part.  Know what kind of behaviors will get “the look,” which ones will require some time in the hallway, and which ones will be a ticket to the principal’s office.  Because consistency is key and students will try to figure out where those limits are.  Teachers aren’t’ too far off when they say, “Don’t smile ‘til November!”  They are saying, stick to your guns and don’t let the students push you around.  Know what deserves a trip to the office and send students out when that time comes every single time. 

3.  Have a plan.  When I was mentoring a new teacher last year, I don’t think I could have said this enough.  Plan for each and every class.  Know EXACTLY what you are going to do on any given day.  Plan the whole unit in advance, or at LEAST plan out the full week.  Plan it so you know about how long an activity is going to take.  And then plan some more; plan extra activities just in case you get finished early.  There will be days when you fly through the lesson and have 15-20 minutes left.  There will also be days when the lesson takes 2 whole class periods and you are then left re-arranging the rest of your week to make it work.  Just don’t be that teacher who walks in to the classroom and realizes that you have no idea how you are going to teach a concept.  That’s got to be the worst feeling in the world!

4.  Ask for stuff.  I realize the term “stuff” is vague; I meant it that way.  Don’t be afraid to ask for actual stuff, like “Where can I get a projector because I was told one would be in my room but it looks like one isn’t there and everything I am going to be doing this year is going to be computer-based.”  Or, “I was told I wouldn’t have to buy my own Expo markers, but I have no idea where to find them.”  Or, “How do I get this copier to turn on?”  Or “How do I fill out this form?”  Trust me, every single one of those questions has been asked.  By me.  In my fifth year of teaching!  It is definitely okay to tell people you don’t know how to do something.  I STILL go into the office and ask the lovely secretaries questions that I’m pretty sure they think I should know the answers to.  But the secret is asking super politely and doing it with a smile on your face and then being super thankful afterward. 

Also, don’t be afraid to ask for lesson ideas, feedback on a unit/lesson you planned, or handouts/tests/activities from your colleagues.  I don’t know how many times my first year I popped into the room of my colleague across the hall to ask questions.  She probably wanted to shut and lock her door a few times to keep me out, but she was a wonderful resource and I do not regret bugging her getting the help.

5.  Make your copies in advance.  If there is any way to make the copies you will need a week or two in advance, do it.  I have a love-hate relationship with the copy machines at my school.  I love them when they work and I hate them when they don’t.  I end up hating them more than loving them.  It will be inevitable that you will forget to make a set of copies of something, whether it be the answer sheet for the test you will be giving or the text that is pivotal to your entire lesson for the day.  It will happen.  And when it does, it will also happen that every single other teacher in the building also needs to use the copy machine.  And the teacher in front of you is using it to make 500 copies front and back of an entire lab packet.  Or all the amendments to the Constitution.  Or ten pages of notes.  And you will be screaming in your head that they should HURRY UP.  Finally it will be your turn.  You will run the paper through that you want to copy, and, I’m not kidding you, it will JAM.  Or you will run out of paper and there will be none in sight.  So, don’t be surprised when these things happen, because they will.  But if you make a habit of making copies in advance, you won’t be in a rush when all of these things go wrong.  It just so happens that when I’m not in a hurry, there is no line at the copy machine and it magically works.  Just sayin’.

I’m sure there’s more information I could tell you/warn you about.  Those are the top five things I would suggest.  Oh, but I do have one more.  Let’s call it a Bonus.

6.  Eat with the happy teachers.  If your school is one where you get to choose where you eat your lunch, then kudos to you!  I suggest you try out a couple of different locations before you find the place you will call your “lunch spot.”  Don’t promise yourself to one group too soon.  That group of teachers may seem super friendly during the meetings before school starts.  You may find out that the same group of smiling teachers become fire-breathing, angry bitter-monsters at lunch.  And that is NOT the energy you want to be around.  Some teachers always say, “Don’t eat in the teacher’s lounge.”  I’ll tell you, that’s not where the bitter-monsters sit at my school!  If you take the time to find a group of teachers you can sit by without anyone calling a student a bad name, griping about EVERYTHING that is wrong with the school, or some such bad-mood-inducing behavior, then you will be much happier the rest of the afternoon.  

Here's to a wonderful start to a wonderful school year.  Leave a comment if you have another great suggestion or have a question to pose.  

--Mrs. Teacher Ma'am