Six things you can do or plan before the school year
1 – Plan routines and procedures ahead of time. Some think upper elementary students shouldn’t need this review/practice, but they do. Go ahead and plan for that. Here’s a free resource for reviewing classroom procedures.
2—Consider creating a digital “hub” for your yearly scope and sequence and weekly plans. This will help you map out the curriculum for each quarter and include links to digital resources. Google Sheets works well for this. This is one of those tasks that takes a bit of time to set up the way you like it but will have time payoffs throughout the year and for future years.
3 – Another option is to create a document with links to various resources, organized by unit and by standard.
4 – Think about how you want students to keep their “stuff” organized. Will they use binders or folders? Where will these be kept? Will they have supplies at their seats? If so, what supplies and how are they expected to clean up or replenish when needed?
5 – Figure out a pencil system that works for you! Here is a great one!
6 – Make/keep a list of “sponge” activities that are good for soaking up a few minutes of extra time when you have it. Read aloud is always a good option. Other options might be whole-class math games or quick review questions about a content area.
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Nine things you can do or plan during the school year
1 – Create a “new student” bag and list of stuff you give out/use for everyone at the beginning of the year. This way, whenever you receive notification of a new student coming to your class the next day, you’ll be semi-prepared!
What to include?
*anything that will include their name
*any notebooks/folders that you give to all students at the beginning of the year
*a few pencils
*any parent/caregiver information that is provided at the beginning of the year (school supply list, information about you and/or your classroom, any back-to-school night information, etc.)
2 – Create a spreadsheet of student information. Type student names vertically. Then create columns for whatever information you need to keep for each student. This might include parent/caregiver phone numbers/email, allergy or health issues, IEP/504 or any other academic need information, any student interests you learn about during back-to-school community-building activities, etc.
3 – Communicate with parents/families often! Send brief class newsletters with any classroom/school updates.
It’s effective if you choose a few students weekly and send something personal by email, phone, or text. Focus on something you appreciate about the student. Parents/families love hearing positive news. (And it makes giving negative news easier because they’ve already heard positives from you.)
4 – If you teach math, complete the math practice you are assigning before giving it to students. That will prepare you for any questions or misconceptions they might have.
5 -If you teach ELA (or read aloud to students in any subject), read the books in advance. There might be difficult topics in the book, and you want to be prepared to stop and discuss if necessary. (Or to choose another book if something is problematic for your students or school.)
6 – Create a checklist of names and make multiple copies. These checklists will come in handy over and over throughout the year. You can use them to check off student classwork, homework, permission slips, other school forms, etc.
You might also use them for formative assessment of student classwork.
7 – Color code everything! ELA materials, notebooks, etc., could be one color, and math materials could be another color, etc.
8 – Consider assigning numbers to every student. Then, you can label cubbies, mailboxes, journals, clipboards, and whatever supplies you use with numbers instead of names. If you do this, you might also make a large chart paper poster of each number beside each student’s name and post it. Then you and others can reference the poster at any time to remember a student’s number. Students learn their numbers very quickly and find this system easy to manage.
9 – Think about how you might want to organize classroom jobs. There are many great ideas on Teachers Pay Teachers. Here are some jobs I find helpful to have in upper elementary grades:
*Someone to change the date & write announcements/reminders on the board
*Someone to change the lunch board choices
*Pencil sharpeners;
*Class librarians who keep the class library organized (you need a few of these!)
*Tech support (makes sure that any technology is plugged in and charging)
*Recess equipment manager (takes recess equipment outside and collects it to bring back inside each day)
*Mail sorters (puts school fliers and other info into student mailboxes to take home)
*Electrician (turns lights on or off, so you don’t have 20 kids hopping up to do that job every time you suggest turning off the lights)
*Paper passers (pass out papers or other supplies)
*Paper sorters (organize papers for you to check or grade. I usually have them put them in number order for me.)
One key tip to remember: never do anything a kid can do! Give your to-do list a quick scan (often) and look for tasks you can give students to do for you.
I hope you found a couple of tips that will save you time and energy this year!
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