The Present Teacher Podcast

7 Things I Focus on During the First Month of School

• Helena Hains • Season 1 • Episode 110

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Are you going into your first year of teaching and you're wondering what you should be focusing on?

This week I share everything I do in order to prepare for the first month of school as a teacher, plus different strategies I use to have the first few weeks of school to stay organized, planned, and prepped ready to go.

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//  ABOUT

I’m Helena, a coach for new and first-year teachers sharing knowledge on how to have a thriving career and personal life.

The Present Teacher Podcast is a resource for classroom management, classroom organization, time management, and teacher wellness. Follow along and learn how to thrive in the classroom and in life.

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Helena Hains:

So it's that time of year again where it's back to school season and you're wondering how can I go about making my life easier during back to school. Well, here are the top seven things I like to focus on during back to school season. Hey, teacher Bestie, my name is Helena and I'm the creator of the Present Teacher Podcast. I'm a first year teacher coach and in this podcast you are going to learn everything from simple, actionable classroom management, social learning and teacher wellness strategies. You know that impact you want to make in the classroom. We're going to make it happen here. The first thing I like to focus on when it's the first month of school is I like to focus on building positive relationships with my families? Is I like to focus on building positive relationships with my families? You see, if you want a really good school year, it's really important to have strong relationships with your families. That's why, during the first month of school, I highly emphasize and focus on building strong relationships with my families. Now, one way I do this and I've talked about this in previous content is I love to reach out with a positive note home for my families During these positive notes, or what I like to call love calls or love notes or whatever I choose to do, I make sure to point out something positive that the student did during that day. So the reason I do this is because I want to let my families know that I'm not only going to reach out to them when I need something, but also to point out the positives during the school year. This helps build the relationship on the right foot and it lets them know that you're here for not only the hard times but also to celebrate the wins, and you're here for a team effort, for a team effort. You're wanting their opinion and you're wanting to work as a team for the betterment of the student, and it lets them know that you have the best interest of the student at heart. So that's why, during the first month of school, I make a list of all my kids names and I make sure to reach out to each student's family at least once during the first month of school. You can do this by focusing on maybe one a day, maybe, you know, two a week, however many you have. Divide that by how many days. But this is really important to building a strong relationship with my families and it helps me in the future, because I already have built a strong rapport with the families. That way, when something does it right and I may need their help, we already have that relationship with a strong foundation that we can build on.

Helena Hains:

The second thing I recommend doing, or I like to do, during the first month of school, is I like to model procedures and expectations. I have a lot of content covering this in past episodes, but in general, I really like to be very clear on what my procedures and expectations are in class, and one thing that I definitely didn't do when I first started teaching but I really wish I did was I didn't model the procedures and expectations. Instead, I would often tell my students we're going to get in a line at a level zero, and then they wouldn't do it and then I'd become frustrated and then I felt like my students were never listening to me and then I felt like I was a bad teacher and I didn't have good classroom management skills. But, truth be told, when you model things, more students have a better understanding of what the expectations are, which I wish I would have known earlier and applied good teaching practices to classroom management. But I digress I learned my lesson. So during the first month of school. I like to list out all the procedures I expect my students to learn and then I like to model each one. I like to focus on anywhere from three to five each week and to really practice those until they become a habit. This is my process to honestly automating my classroom management and it helps me get to a point where my students from my classroom without me and I don't have to do anything but sit back and sip my coffee. And in case you're wondering what procedures are, procedures are how you expect your students to interact with each other and things throughout the classroom. Some different procedures you might have is transitioning from whole group to independent work, coming in in the morning, packing up, grabbing a pencil, using the restroom, raise our hand, class calls there's honestly so many, but coming up with which procedures you're teaching when, intentionally planning when you're going to teach them and being sure to model them, is really important. In a previous week, I covered exactly how I review and teach procedures, so if you want to check that out, I highly recommend doing that if you want to learn more about how I teach procedures in my classroom.

Helena Hains:

The third thing I like to focus on during back to school season, specifically during the first month of school, is I like to organize my resources. So it's really important during the first couple months of school and weeks to have strong organization skills and to really organize my resources. That way later on the year it's easier for me to use them later. Some ways that I like to organize my resources are like creating file folders ahead of time for some of the skills I know I'm going to cover. That way, when I print something off from I don't know TPT or the curriculum, when I print a master copy, all I have to do is I have to put it in the folder that's already there. I don't have to put it into a big pile of two file papers because I didn't make a file folder for it. And at the end of the year I then have to sit there for a couple hours and file all of the papers I never filed throughout the school year. Yeah, true story, I've done that. Please don't do that.

Helena Hains:

So instead, it takes some time to list out and make file folders ahead of time for some of the skills you're going to be teaching. And then I also like to make labels in my mailbox, in my email. That way I can just drag and drop. That way, my inbox is at a zero. Anything I complete, I drag and drop to one of the labels. If it's not done yet, it stays in my inbox and then also my Google Drive. I make folders that batch my file folder in my Google Drive so as I download resources, I don't have to scroll through downloads forever. I can just then go to the file folder that I need and grab this based on the scale on which resource I need.

Helena Hains:

So, in general, organizing your classroom from the get-go is going to be really important. It's going to help you have a smoother year. Plus, when you organize your resources in upcoming years, you're saving yourself a bunch of time. Instead of spending time going on TPT, going to the search bar of already purchased and typing things in and realizing you can't find it. So you buy something else only to later find it. You probably didn't need to spend money on the second version, etc. It's going to save you a lot of time and money in the future and it's going to make your future years easier. So take some time. I highly recommend to organize your resources. That way you can save yourself so much time and money in the future.

Helena Hains:

The fourth thing I really like to focus on during the first month of school is building strong relationships with my students. Now, I don't know about you, but I've heard so often people online talk about building relationships and they don't tell you how. Well, I'm going to tell you exactly how I build strong relationships. The first thing is I show my students with respect. I say yes, ma'am, no, ma'am, and I just give them the respect that I expect them to give me. And I also get to know them outside of school, like get to know their interests outside of school. Are they interested in sports? Do they play video games? Which video games Do they like? Movies which movies Do they have? Lego sets, which Lego sets do they like, etc. When I get to know about their interests and I listen to their interests and I incorporate it into the class, that's helping me build strong relationships.

Helena Hains:

But it's also important for me to share a little bit about my life. Now, don't get me wrong. I personally don't feel comfortable sharing too much about my personal life, but I do let them know things such as about my dogs, koda and Kenai. They're named off of Brother Bear. I like to show them pictures. I let them know I have a husband named Kyle and just stuff like that, but and my favorite animals are sloths. And one way that I like to do this also is in the morning when I take attendance, instead of just looking and writing stuff down, I like to do a question of the day. So one way I've done this in the past is I like to look at the national blank day, so maybe today's national ice cream day. I might ask my students then what their favorite flavor of ice cream is, and if they don't like ice cream, what do they like instead? So getting more students to share more about their interests helps you build a strong relationship with them.

Helena Hains:

Another way I like to build strong relationships with them is I like to have them do classroom building, community building activities. So this has to do a lot with brain breaks, and I can dive into a whole week about all the brain breaks and the community building stuff I do. One example I like to do, especially with working together as a team, is I like to do the cup activity. So the cup activity is something I came up with during my first year teaching second grade, and it worked so well that the rest of the school ended up using it At least my grade level, I was told the rest of the school was going to, but I digress. So how it works is I got three or four 10 pack of plastic cups from the dollar tree and what I did is I put this pack of 10 cups on the tables of each on the on each table so they could do a brain back activity, and they were given two minutes to try to build the tallest tower they could off of the table. So what they found was the more that they yelled at each other and got upset, their cups would fall, whereas when they were more calm and positive, they built the strongest tower. Now, the first time they didn't realize this, or they didn't have this epiphany. The first time it was a hot mess and they often, you know, yelled at each other and it was very frustrating and they took their anger out on each other. And then afterwards we had a conversation about okay, what did you notice? And just through questioning, these second graders came up with the idea oh, when you did this, it made me upset. And but when I did this, our tower got higher. So we did it again and this time their towers were way higher than they had ever been. So using classroom community buildings like classroom building activities like that can really help build strong relationships. So that is another emphasis I really do during the first month of school is I help my students build strong relationships, not only with me but with each other, because that's the foundation, I believe, of a really strong classroom environment or a classroom family.

Helena Hains:

The fifth thing I like to focus on during the first month of school and now we're going to kind of transition out of the classrooms things is I like to lay out my clothes for the week. So during the weekend I like to do, you know, laundry, catch up on house chores, and then I like to lay out about seven outfits for the week. That way, if I don't want to wear the outfit I chose for that week, I can choose a different one. But the reason I do this is because during the first month I'm exhausted. I don't know about you, I'm tired Because you go from this like slow, steady, do it your own pace during the summer and then, as soon as you hit back to school, it feels like you have so much structure and you're waking up earlier and it's just really hard to do so instead of fighting myself in the mornings, I just lay out my clothes that way the whole week.

Helena Hains:

It's one less thing I need to worry about and I don't have to worry about whether this shirt goes with those pants and et cetera. It's already done and ready to go and just energetically, it feels so good to wake up in the morning and have my clothes set out, ready to go. So if you find yourself really struggling to get up in the mornings and maybe you want an extra 10 minutes to I don't know meditate, go for a walk or sleep and then feel free to still this hack of laying out your clothes for the week. It has saved me so much energy and time and brain capacity during the first month of school and I know during that first month of school I'm definitely struggling. So the next thing that I like to do the sixth thing I like to do and focus on during the first month of school is I love to meal prep. This saves me so much time. So instead of trying to figure out what I'm going to eat for lunch and what we're having for dinner, I like to sit down and meal prep the entire week. I like to make all my meals for lunch that week, and then I like to meal prep over the weekends our dinners too. So you don't have to have that dreaded phone call with your spouse on what we're having for dinner. It's already set up, ready to go. That takes the guesswork out of it. So by meal prepping I mean after work. I don't know about you, but sometimes I just don't feel like cooking or don't feel like thinking about what I need to do. Instead, I like to prep everything out ahead of time. That way I can just throw it into a pot, throw it into a crock pot when I get home. And it's done so. Highly recommend. If you find yourself exhausted after work, try meal prepping over the weekends. It's going to save you a lot of time and energy.

Helena Hains:

The last thing I like to focus on during the first month of school is working really hard. Not just kidding Is resting. So, contrary to popular belief, I know that during the first month of school everyone's like let's go, let's go, we need to start planning ahead. We need to start. Yada, yada, yada. I like to rest. I like to go to bed early. Rest, I like to go to bed early. I like to be kind to myself and give myself some space, because I know that, especially during the first month of school, I'm going to be tired because I don't know about you. I'm an introvert. So when I go from having my own personal space pretty much all day while my husband's at work to then having 20 to 30 little ones in my bubble all day, I'm exhausted. So having an earlier bedtime during this time of year or even taking a couple naps, honestly the best. So I like to clear my schedule in the evenings when I can in the afternoon and make sure I get some extra rest. Now, despite popular belief, I know that society really loves hustle culture.

Helena Hains:

Rest is productive. Rest helps you show up your best self the next day. So don't feel guilty the next time you want to rest after work. If you want to rest, you deserve the rest. Take some time and rest. You deserve it. It's totally fine to rest. In fact I encourage it because it helps you have a smoother transition into the school year. And be kind to yourself, because going from the summer you know chillness to then going to the structure and the amount of humans in your circle during the first month of school can be a lot. So make sure to show up for yourself. Be kind, give yourself space and give yourself a couple weeks to transition. That's really important. Don't be too hard on yourself. If you find yourself sleeping a lot or wanting some extra rest, it's needed and encouraged, and I definitely do it too. So that wraps up the seven things I like to do during the first month of school. That makes my life easier.

Helena Hains:

If you found this helpful, I want to invite you to check out the Ultimate Classroom Setup Guide. This shares every well, the top 10 questions I get in regards to setting up your classroom for success and my answers to those questions. And then, if you want to take it a step further, maybe you haven't quite started back to school season yet. Maybe you haven't quite started back to school season yet, but you're kind of wanting someone to walk you through things like how do I organize my classroom? How do I set up the different areas? Which areas should I have? How do I lay out my classroom? You want to work on things like how do I set up for family night? How do I have strong family communication from day one? How do I create positive relationships with them? How do I have strong classroom management skills? And then how do I plan the first month of school? And I do all of those things in less than four weeks of school starting, because I don't want to spend my entire summer working. Then you're welcome to come join us inside Classroom Kickstart Mini Course.

Helena Hains:

This program was it's pre-recorded so you can honestly go at your own pace, but it was ideally set up for four weeks or less to help you set up for the school year, so you don't have to worry about using your entire summer prepping for the school year. I want you to relax and enjoy your summer and if you already did, then perfect. But I like to travel. So after my first year of teaching, I spent my entire summer working and I vowed never to do it again. So now I want to make it easier on you and show you exactly how not to work your entire summer while still being a month planned, prepped and ready to go. So if you're interested in that, make sure to check out the link in the description down below. And if you want me to just give you templates that I use on, like teaching procedures, layouts for the classroom, stuff like that, make sure to check out the classroom setup bundle. I'll have that in the link in the description down below, I just put all my resources that I use for back to school and you know, know for in general, and I put in a bundle for you, so make sure to check that as well.

Helena Hains:

All right, thank you so much for joining me. Teacher bestie, what are you doing during the first month of school to make your life easier? Let me know, as always. Remember we're stronger together and I'll see you in the next one. Teacher rusty bye. Thank you so much for joining me on today's episode. I hope that you were able to take away some value that will help you thrive inside and out of the classroom. It would mean the world to me if you could take five seconds right now and leave a review on this podcast. And if you found this podcast especially helpful, make sure to take a screenshot of this episode right now and tag me on your socials to let me know you're listening. As always, remember that we are stronger together. With all the love in the world, helena, aka the Present Teacher. See you next time, teacher Bestie.

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