Five Steps to Ease Back into the First Day of Teaching

 Really??? Do we have to return to teahing? Don’t get me wrong. Teachers love their jobs, love that they make a difference, look forward to having a brand new group of little humans to educate, blah, blah, blah. All that said, the first day scares us sh**less.

Whether this is your twentieth year or your first year, the butterflies are relentlessly running relays in the pits of our stomachs. Perhaps, it’s the fear of the unknown or the fear that we are going to forget how to teach, and the kids will be standing on the tops of their desks singing Post Malone songs. I really have no idea what songs those would be, but my daughter seems to enjoy his tunes.

First Day Fears

Even though we prepare all summer by scouting Pinterest, eBay, and Amazon for new bulletin board ideas, lesson plans and materials, the first day still makes us feel like we are thirteen and beginning our first year of middle school hell. We play the scenarios over and over in our minds. What if I put Hannah on the wrong bus? What if I have five kids that won’t stop crying? What if I have the worst class ever and start swearing at the kids out of nowhere? Can that happen? It probably has. There are steps that can be taken to help ensure your first day runs as smooth as a tub of well-churned butter.

Be prepared.                                                                                   

When you walk into your room on the first day, you want to be mentally as well as academically prepared. You don’t want to be silently cussing out the teacher who is using the only working machine to copy sets of journals for his or her entire class. Too early in the year for “Run-Off Rage.”

Materials should be organized and laid out ahead of time. This means making the most of the few days that are assigned before school starts. Often, there will be staff meetings that take up valuable planning time, so it is essential that any free preparation minutes are used wisely. It is tempting to want to catch up with EVERYONE, but time flies and checking items off your list is the only real way to alleviate stress.

It’s a good idea to arrive at least a half an hour early or stay late to feel like you have accomplished several important tasks each day. I know you don’t get paid for it, but the extra time will pay dividends in peace and sanity on the first day of school. 

Ease into your routine sleep schedule.

It’s tempting to want to party hard on those last few days before school starts. By party hard, I mean staying up to all hours of the night finishing your latest Netflix binge series. This is not a good idea.

If you wish to get any sleep on the Sunday before the first day, my advice is to start the week prior to your start date. Set a realistic bedtime that is within an hour of the time you will be going to bed during the school year. If you sleep in until noon, it will defeat the purpose. Set your phone alarm the same way in the morning, within an hour of your school wake up time. This will get you on a solid sleep schedule, and you will not feel as though a Mack Truck has plowed you down on the first day. Actually, who are we kidding? You will feel that way, regardless.

Related Article-Simple Slumber

Tune in to Tune out

This is a big one. The first few days of school, there are often introductory meetings that take you though your entire college education in a matter of a few hours. I often look around the room and I can just tell that someone or EVERYONE wants to stand up and yell, “For the love of peace, STFU. I can’t handle one more thing stuffed into my overflowing brain.”

My suggestion is to have a song handy to hum silently to yourself to block out information overload. Yankee Doodle, It’s a Small World, the Barney Theme, something that will help you to resist the urge to run out of the room crying.

 Important information given, but it will be more than likely be repeated at a later date or on handouts. There is only so much information that your brain can handle, so it is important to tune a lot out at the beginning meetings, or at the least, do not assign everything so much importance. It will drive you CRAZY.

Make a list and check it twice.

You don’t want to forget something and have it stress you out on the first day. It’s sort of like forgetting the tickets on the way to a concert. It causes unneeded backtracking and anxiety. What I find extremely helpful is to keep my phone by my bedside, so I can keep track of those voices that echo in our heads at 3:00 in the morning reminding us that we have to write our back to school parent letter or buy material for our bulletin boards. You know it will be completely gone in the morning, so jot  it down on “The Notes” section on your phone. I take great delight in deleting each item when completed. Celebrate the simple successes!!

Over, not under

For the first day, over-prepare. Make extra copies for the kids that register on the first day, and have plenty of extra pencils sharpened. Know what you will do in case someone throws up, wets their pants, or won’t stop crying. It is a good idea to write out your entire first day schedule in detail, so it is fresh in your mind. (NotePad on phone)

Write an overview of that schedule on the front whiteboard, so it is there and will keep you on track. Prepare for something to go wrong. If it does, always keep going strong. I tell my daughter the same thing when she’s doing her dance routine. When your skirt falls off,(like it has) pretend like nothing happened, and everyone will think nothing did. (I do think people noticed the skirt) If you didn’t make enough copies, tell the students that it’s cooperative learning and pair them up. Solve problems proactively.

Set the stage for good classroom management.

Classroom management is the hardest teaching skill to learn and also one of the most important. Your management system should be emphasized, taught and utilized on the very first day. Don’t say, “I go easier on the first day” or, “I go harder on the first day.” Students should know the rules, the expectations and the consequences, and they should be enacted right away.

If a student breaks a rule on the first day, the consequence should be implemented. Positive reinforcement is your friend, especially in the younger grades. Saying, “Wow, look at how hard Noah is working!” usually creates a chain reaction. The other students straighten up and begin acting like angels from above. Classroom Management 101.

For the older grades, scan the room for the wise cracking student, more than likely sitting at the back of the room. This is the student who’s been watching YouTube videos all summer long and is looking for the perfect moment in time to blurt out something sarcastically funny in order to increase popularity points.

But alas, this is what you have been preparing for. Resist the urge to humiliate by using retaliatory sarcasm. Humor is fine, but make it a short comeback, and quickly move on with the lesson. A short conference after class outlining future consequences might do the trick while simultaneously forging a rapport with the student.

Here We Go

Relationship building is key to effective classroom management. With large classes, it becomes a balancing act, but targeting 5-7 students a day will help foster those important relationships. These tips serve as a starting point. Although we are professional educators, the first day of anything is the toughest.

Building a strong foundation will serve to create a productive and healthy environment for our students and ourselves. Every educator has a different environment and circumstance, and the ability to go with the flow is key. Please comment any advice you have as you may really help someone struggling. Here is to a happy, successful school year.