Welcome Back to School 2021!

 Happy New Year! This might seem like my timing is off, however, if you think about it, we are probably the only profession where we get a fresh start every year. We get to clean and redecorate the classroom, we get a new set of students, possible co-teachers, schedules, and more. The first few days of school (and the days leading up to them,) can be both exciting and stressful, especially if it's your first year. I've created a short reminder list to keep in your back pocket (or teacher bag!) to help you feel ready to start. The goal is to feel more excited than anxious. 


Even as a veteran teacher, I can promise you that we still have first-day jitters, forget to do things, and freeze up in the middle of class when showing students the procedure for lining up for lunch. The important thing to remember is to be your authentic self and let the students have time to truly connect with you and one another. The rest will come with time! 

Keep relationships first!, Keep refining your classroom management routines, keep communicating with families to get to know them and your student, keep the humor going throughout the day and don't forget to keep smiling- nothing makes a room light up better than a teacher's smilie! 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Teacher Leadership Mini-Series: F.E.E.D the Teacher Leader in You! Part #2: Engagement

Greetings everyone and welcome to my blog this week! I'm so glad you're here for our mini-series leading up to a great event at the end of the month: the KDP, Delta Rho Teacher Leadership Development Summit on 2/24/24. It is a free virtual summit open to all educators everywhere! Please visit my social media for information, or reach out to me! Our theme this year is “Leaders are hungry... F.E.E.D the teacher leader in you!” Each week we will break down F.E.E.D and get excited to hear our amazing presenters and keynote speakers that will give us the fuel we need to confidently lead in our classrooms, schools, and beyond! Last week we talked about “F”- foundations. Discovering our own definition for teacher leadership is the foundation for growing as a teacher leader, and embracing the role. Foundational skills also include knowing yourself as a leader, and believing you are one. Self-reflection, networking and professional learning are great ways to establish your foundation t...
Read more

T.E.A.C.H er Appreciation Month, Part #1

Welcome to Teacher Appreciation Month educator friends! For most places there is a week designated to teacher appreciation, but I vote we celebrate all month! With that in mind, let's celebrate with the acronym T.E.A.C.H. Each week I'll focus on a different letter and what makes educators unique and essential to our world. Today let's start with "T" for Time . Time is one of the most valuable things that we have. We all know that it cannot be bought, exchanged, or given back once it is gone. Teachers know this better than anyone because of the amount of time they spend on work for the profession. From lesson plans, reports, reading, spreadsheets, videos.... and the list goes on, teachers can easily spend hours in their classroom or at home working on things that need to be completed. This is all to better serve their students, schools, and the community.  It's often difficult for teachers to choose between personal time for themselves and doing something that ...
Read more

Veteran Teachers' Corner: Post #3- The Journey of Curriculum Writing- Out with the Old, In with the New (and Old).

 One of the overarching ideas for rewriting the ELA curriculum was the concept of keeping what already worked and add in new details to create and enhance the new version. I paused and thought "would writing from scratch actually be easier in this case?" I determined given the timeframe (see blog post #2) that answer was definitely a no. Others who were creating curriculums from a blank template had a more difficult road to travel by for sure. But for me, as an educator and writer, weaving new and old concepts was a challenge in of itself.  I decided the best way was to start by reading each section what was there, look at new notes I made throughout the year during lessons and reflection, and add those in. There were of course essential pieces we had to include such as new standards, cross-curricular activities, and career readiness. While those were a "copy-paste" movement, it took some time to locate them. Once found, I added all of them into the first unit of t...
Read more