BACK TO SCHOOL BOOTCAMP: Episode 1- Summer Prep (:
So you are on summer break and will be heading into this next school year as a WONDERFUL and AMAZING teacher, but you are nervous and overwhelmed with what lays ahead? Absolutely no worries here, I will walk you through summer prep and the first 5 weeks of school to get you feeling flawless and confident.
WHO: Is this bootcamp for?
Now you may be asking, who is this bootcamp for? And the truth is EVERYBODY even vet teachers have to prep and prepare for the first weeks back to school. Yes this bootcamp will be targeted towards my LOVELY baby teachers who are in their first or second year of teaching, but I think the learning can be spread to all. So maybe you are going into your 5th year of teaching or you are changing grade levels, stay, hang out & hopefully learn a lot!!
WHAT: Are we focusing on?
This summer prep only has 3 MAIN focuses, because these are the things that I 100% believe will give you the most bang for your buck when it comes to having a smooth & fun classroom this school year. The three main topics are Classroom Management & Environment, Routines and Procedures and Classroom Community! (:
WHEN: Will I need to prepare?
This first episode is designed to be a summer prep, so to be thinking about your classroom and all the wonderful things that will happen there, this following school year, but I know a lot of teachers do not like to do any over the summer learning & to that I say HECK YES! This can totally be applied to your teacher inservice, when you go back but you have no students yet!! And for my summer babes, LET’S DO THIS!
WHY: Is back to school so important?
The first few weeks back to school set the tone for the entire school year. I always think work hard in those first two months back at school and reap the benefits for the rest of the school year. Establishing a positive and responsive classroom environment is the KEY to having a SLAY teaching year (: This prep will get you to lay the groundwork for a classroom that is efficient, responsive and FUN.
HOW: To get the most out of this information?
Now the information presented in episode 1 is A LOT!!! So if I were you I would take a week or two to think about all these things below, so that you can avoid overwhelm & stay the course, because I promise it will be worth it.
TOPIC #1: Classroom management and Environment:
I think it is important to discuss this in this case of classroom management, I am describing the actual physical act of managing your classroom and all the things that go into it. Yes that means student behavior and response to your classroom, but mostly in this summer prep we are going to think about the set-up experiences. (:
The physical environment of your classroom is super important because it needs to function efficiently and be set up as a safe and calming space for students. So in this lesson we are going to think about two main goals, Arranging your classroom and Classroom Materials.
Arranging the classroom:
Now if you have never seen your classroom before this will be a tiny bit more difficult to imagine but not impossible. When setting up the physical space in your classroom you need to think about this checklist: I will ask the questions that I think you should ponder, and beneath it I will give my two cents, so if you have no idea you can steal ideas from me (:
What will your student desks look like, will they be arranged in teams, rows, table groups?
Ps. I totally recommend a more structured seating arrangement for the first month of school, so I always do pairs or rows. I have even done single desks by themselves for more rowdier classes (:
Where will you be presenting material, will you have a smart board or a smart tv, how can you angle students towards the learning center?
Will you have a teacher desk and a small group table? Will they serve as one space?
Ps. I have always made my small group table my teacher desk & used it as a space that works next to my technology so it is easy to present from.
Will you have a reading corner, or classroom library? What will that look like and how will you organize it?
Ps. I have always had a classroom library that took up 2 or 3 bookshelves. I LOATHE leveled libraries and that is just a rant I will not get into, so I have always organized by genre in my libraries, reserving the top shelf for some popular reads. I also have used a pencil and paper check in and out system, but there are a ton out there if you are curious for more.
Student backpacks and student materials? Where will both of those go?
Ps. I have always set up in my classroom a “STUDENT CENTER” this is a book shelf that has crayons, markers, whiteboards, pencils, paper, tissues etc. that students can access as they need. I also have student materials things like their notebook and folder or workbooks stored in book boxes, because I have never taught somewhere that had desks with storage! (:
Miscellaneous set ups to consider: What will your walls look like? Do you have a place to display student work? Will you have a calming space or a third space for students? Do you have flexible seating and how will that work? How and where will students line up when leaving the classroom?
Ps. When considering walls, think about LESS is more! Now don’t get me wrong I love some cutie decor and think it makes your classroom homey, but maybe you don’t need the instagram worthy classroom or all the classroom decor bundles.. I also have always used my walls as an active learning space so I leave the bottoms blank intentionally.
I have always used the bulletin board outside my classroom as the place to display student work, just because I didn’t have space in my classroom, but kids also love having everyone see what they made.
Flex seating and calming spaces aren’t for everyone, but if you are going to have them you will need to manage them so think and write down exactly what you want that to look like.
I always had my line be straight back from the door, this meant I had to arrange my desks so that there was always a clear cut path from the door where students could line up.
Classroom materials:
Now we touched on this slightly in the physical arrangement but I think it is important to think about it separately so you can have a plan in place for how all these materials will be stored and utilized in your classroom.
I always think about classroom materials in two ways. Student materials, and class materials. Now student materials are going to be things that are personalized to them, they are the only one who use them and they are responsible for them. Class materials will be anything that the class shares responsibility over and students will not get individually. So look at the list below and label either student material or class material & then we will think about storage and management.
Writing utensils: Pencils, Pens, Markers, Crayons, Highlighters, Colored Pencils and Expo markers.
Paper materials: Notebooks, Folders, Library Books, and Student Workbooks.
Tech materials: Headphones, Chargers and Computer storage.
Other materials: Glue, Scissors, Finished Work, Missing Work, Pencil Sharpener, Hand Sanitizer and Tissues, Pencil pouch, erasers.
Storage and Management of these materials:
Where will you store all of these things and how will students access them. I will tell you what I have done below:
Writing Utensils: Students have gotten a pencil pouch that contains two pencils and two erasers, that they are responsible for. All of the other materials are classroom materials and are stored in the “Student Center”
Paper Materials: Notebooks, folders and student workbooks have been stored in book boxes by team and color coordinated. Library books are stored in student backpacks, but I have also done a crate system for storage.
Tech materials: Headphones are a classroom material and are stored by number. Computers and Chargers are stored in a charging station.
Other materials: Glue and scissors I stored in what I called student toolboxes and those were in the student center for students to access. Finished work I had a turn in the bin for and missing work was just stored with me. Hot take maybe, but the pencil sharpener was behind my desk and adult only usage till second semester where I trained people to use it. Hand sanitizer and tissues were on a desk outside my classroom door, because gross..
STUDENT CENTER
This is where I housed ALL communal supplies, that students could access when they needed them.
TOPIC #2: Routines and Procedures:
Okay okay you probably hear these buzzwords all the time, but what are they and are they even important? I am here to tell you that if you take 1 thing from me please please please let it be this. ROUTINES AND PROCEDURES over everything else, they are literally the most important piece to running an effective classroom. If your routines and procedures are airtight and flawless you will avoid so much and you will have a classroom that you LOVE!!! If you spend time doing anything this summer for your classroom, let it be this! Not cutting out cutesy decor or buying all the things, I promise you that this will be your game changer.
What are routines and procedures:
Routines are anything that have your students active so like morning routine, dismissal routine, transition routine, backpack routine etc. These are like the choreography of your classroom, how will each member of your hypothetical dance team execute these to lead to your team’s success. Procedures are any materials or “things” you do in your classroom. Procedures are like pencil procedure, bathroom procedure, specials etc.
So what do I want you to do about it, I want you to physically write down EXACTLY what you want each routine and procedure to look like, I will give some examples as well as have all of mine for you if you want them (: BE SPECIFIC the more specific the better, think about student voice, body and action! Alright here is your list:
Arrival
Dismissal
Morning Work
Morning Meeting
Line Up
Signals
Bathroom + Water
Transitions
Hallways
Partner Talk
Personal Materials- Organization
Pencils
Lunch + Recess
Sharing Ideas
Classroom Materials
Whole group
Noise level
Technology
Flexible Seating
Homework.
Small group
Independent work
Classroom Books
Emergencies
Intercom/ Announcements
Turning in Work
Carpet
Incentives
TOPIC #3: Classroom Community:
Your classroom community is how students will feel and belong in the space that you create. The prompts and questions below will get you thinking about creating a safe, responsive and respectful classroom for your students (:
The first thing I always encourage new teachers to think about when it comes to the classroom community is what are your classroom core beliefs, what are the things that will guide every decision and procedure you do in your classroom and how do you want your students to act towards those things. My classroom core beliefs have always been:
All students deserve respect and will treat others with respect
This will always be my guiding thought when thinking about student interaction and teacher to student interaction (:
A safe classroom is a right
This will help me define my classroom procedures and routines to ensure that students feel safe. This will also help me think about how to get all students to be active members of our community.
School can be fun
I love making my classroom fun after everything else has been established and I will always go back to this!
All procedures and expectations have to be taught, assume your students do not know how you like them to do ANYTHING!
My students are capable of ANYTHING as long as I explicitly teach them how to access school (:
The last thing I want you to think about before you are done with the classroom community is how will you build a classroom community. I will list my ideas below, but think about:
How will you get to know your students, how will they get to know each other?
How will you involve the student voice into your classroom and how will you get students to value one another?
How will you set a positive tone and hold students to high expectations?
How do you want your students to feel about the space your classroom holds for them?
Practical ideas are:
Morning MEETING BABY!!! ( this is super in depth in episode 3)
Get to know you activities
Essential agreements or class agreements that are agreed upon as a group
Out of the classroom experiences (this could be 10 minutes of joining them in physical education)
Not compromising a student relationship you have built for a small win- Essentially if it is a student who you have been working hard to build a relationship with, you can let some small things go to show them you are on their team.
Getting to know the people they know
Listening to your students
Building relationships as the focus the first week of school, content will always be there, the window to get to know your students before it is too late will not
Making a positive interaction with their family in the first month of school. This can be a note home, and email or a phone call. Something that says: I see your student rocking it and I am impressed (:
Holding students to high expectations (more in episode 2)
Conclusion of Episode 1:
Now you have got your physical classroom and all the materials in it organized and ready to go! You also have all your routines and procedures written out and ready to rock. Finally you have your core beliefs identified and your classroom community bumpin (: I bet you are feeling already 1 step closer to that SLAY classroom that you are envisioning!! Episode 2 will be all about summer prep round 2 where you think about classroom management and student behavior.
