The following checklist has been adapted from Scholastic’s Teacher Resources site, but the original list came from Linda Shalaway’s Learning to Teach: Not Just for Beginners...The Essential Guide for All Teachers. These ideas, which have been adapted for a more modern teacher (the original included very little regarding online resources and communication tools), encompass everything from physical organization to preparing to be a good communicator with families.
Over and over again, new teachers hear the importance of preparation, and this list will ensure everything I could have planned for has been covered. Knowing I have an organized classroom gives me mental space to tackle the inevitable curveballs from the students themselves!
- Make sure the room is clean. No point in setting up on top of a dirty space.
- Read the school’s parent handbook thoroughly, along with the school website.
- Set up your classroom blog, website, or social media accounts. Make sure privacy settings are appropriate.
- Plan your bulletin boards.
- Decide where you want to post announcements, menu, and calendar.
- Prepare a welcome back display.
- Designate boards for subject area work, and boards for students to design.
- Decide where you want to display your students' original work.
- Set up two or three learning centers to get started.
- Label anchor charts to use for rules established by the class.
- Familiarize yourself with the database, print class lists and nametags.
- Print the bus lists and make a pocket-sized cheat sheet.
- Post a cheery sign with your name outside the door along with a class list. Students and parents will appreciate it when they go looking for the right room.
- Make student name tags for desks (unless you are planning to have the students make their own).
- Find out your students' schedules for lunch, gym, art, music, and library.
- Gather and organize all your supplies:
- Teaching texts and supplemental materials
- Plan books
- Classroom reading books and read-aloud titles
- Paper clips and binder clips
- Various types of paper (writing, construction, grid)
- Folders with name labels
- Different kinds of tape and sticky tack
- Rubber bands
- Stapler and staples
- Pencils/pens
- Tissues
- Art supplies: markers, colored pencils, crayons, stickers, felt, pipe cleaners, glue sticks, Elmer’s glue, hot glue guns (cool glue-style), googly eyes, glitter, colorful tape, sequins, beads, popsicle sticks and wooden baubles
- Prepare take-home packets for your students, tucked into a plastic zip folder with the student’s name. Some of the items you'll want to include are:
- Emergency forms
- School rules
- Supply list
- Bus or transportation rule
- Welcome message to parents/request for room parents
- Find out which students may be going to special classes.
- Check out library books for students and books for read-alouds.
- Set up a folder for a substitute to use in case of emergency, containing the following:
- Daily schedule
- Seating chart
- Reproducible activities
- Prepare a file on Google Drive for correspondence from parents.
- Prepare a file on Google Drive for faculty bulletins.
- Bookmark an online copy of state and district curriculum standards.
- Write tentative lesson plans for the coming week.
- Make copies of materials you'll be handing out during the first few days.
- Make a checklist for items to be returned in the first week of school.
- Create a distribution list of parent emails.
- Write your name and other important class information on the board.
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