Back to School Day 1

Friday the school was buzzing with energy as everyone returned to start setting up for the new year. Even though teachers come and go during the summer, it is never the same as the official start when everyone comes back with excitement all at the same time. This year I have a practicum student coming in for three weeks in order to see what the start of a school year is like. That gave me an idea that maybe some readers would also be curious and would enjoy glimpses into this time of the year. While many of my readers may have a lot of experience, I always enjoy hearing about what other teachers do. I figured that it may be a fun conversation to start with both new and experienced teachers. I would love if you comment about what you are doing for the start of your year or about your own back to school activities.

DAY 1

The big day finally arrived. Yesterday morning, dressed ready to work in comfortable shoes, jeans, and my hair pulled back in a pony tail, I peeked into my new classroom upon arriving and was so excited. Everything looks great, and my teacher desk, file cabinet, chair, and an additional book case had arrived. A group of colleagues helped me move my boxes from my old classroom to the new classroom. When writing my to-do list over the summer I tried to think of how my practicum student and assistant (on certain days) could help.

This year I am going to try organizing my classroom library alphabetically by author's last name. I admit, I am not sure how long it will stay organized, but I was ready to give it a try after skimming my whole library to find one book that I knew would be perfect for a student. My partner teacher suggested that I should have my practicum student write each letter of the alphabet on a piece of card stock (or old file folders) to divide each section. She mentioned that even though the books might not stay perfectly alphabetized, at least they should be in the section of the right letter. I made a note to myself to not forget to do that.

While my practicum student was busy sorting books and putting them on the shelves, I was going through the rest of the boxes. I had a very long day yesterday because I wanted to get as much unloaded as possible. My classroom layout is starting to take shape. Even though my student desks have not arrived my partner teacher and I moved the extra desks out of her room into mine to get a better feel of how much space they will take up. My partner teacher and I discussed different ideas of where to put the remaining items that will still come in. Throughout the day we were also talking in my old room (her new room) about how she could rearrange the space, and it is looking great as well. It was so nice to be a part of a middle school team this year in order to brainstorm ideas together.

I also brought in a big garbage can and sorted through different binders that I have packed from one room to the other but not referred to very often. I would have made Debbie Diller proud as I was tossing out a lot, only keeping what I knew I would use.

Most years of my teaching I have kept a binder with my daily lesson plans and handouts. I still had back to my first year of teaching, and most of those documents (including this previous year) went in the trash. I did keep days that had certain units I know I will want to reference later. I also decided on a new way to organize my plans. My old binders had every class that I taught all on the same document. Now, I am going to keep notes for separate content areas. For social studies I want to start a binder for the year, and place the binder in a bin along with any other materials that I need for the unit and a list of books that I pull from my classroom library to go along with the theme. This seems like it will be much more user-friendly than shifting through my eclectic binders of the past. (I know I read about a similar idea a while back and I will reference the book once I have a chance to skim my professional books at school to remember for sure which one it was.)

My long day was worth it. At the end of the night I left my classroom with a stack of broken down cardboard boxes in the center, a small stack of binders that I still need to go through and a to-do list with my priorities for Monday. I won't waist time trying to remember what I need to do, and I will be able to get right to work. Included on my list was areas where my practicum student will be able to help me out.

My room is still far from ready, but I have four days next week, and I am happy with the progress I have made so far. I look forward to all that the year will bring.