Maybe it’s because I’m entitled. To be honest, summer break hasn’t felt like summer break since 2019. And when I went back to work in the fall of 2020 I was waiting for the day that they would announce the premature end of it. I knew we couldn’t sustain. And I thought that maybe I thought those things because I tried to do my best in the spring of 2019 with that emergency education that few called it and then again when the pandemic swung it’s fists through my classroom and we had to quarantine for two weeks that possibly things would just come to an end because someone who was sitting in government chairs talked to their child and their child relayed how horrible public education had become and because of that conversation that they had, they came to work with a refreshed and realistic understanding about the futility of trying to teach children without the skills of teaching children in a pandemic and that they would cease school for time to allow time and bodies to recalibrate and rethink how things may work if we might have to do this yet again. But, nope. I had to keep teaching. And do all of those other things that come along with it. 

I thank too much to go to sleep tonight, and it’s only Monday. I thank about these last two school years, and as much as I tried, I probably will never be able to recognize those children if I saw them out at a grocery store sometime over the next three years. I thanked about the beginning of the end of two school years ago: when one of my students started wearing a mask to school two weeks before I saw Rudy Gobert come down with the Rona two nights before I was planning to book my Spring vacation to Miami. I thanked about calling my boy, Jay, and telling him that, “this Corona shit is getting serious.” And then texted my boy, David, in Miami, “Imma fall back for a few weeks and see what this shit lookin’ like in the summertime.” Recently, I thanked about what I thought about two springs ago. I realized that I’m thankful. 

I’m ready for August but not ready for much beyond that. That makes me queasy. The more I try to decompress the more I tighten up. I’m not used to this. I’m used to thinking; about school, and plans, and predictions. But this shit right here is brand new to me. And I feel like the onus is on my, our, shoulders. To figure it out and settle things down. But I’m not built like that. Neither do I have the medical and rationale capacity to side step my job and try to work on figuring it out. So I guess I’ll just go back to work in September. It’s not exactly what I signed up for, but hopefully the queasiness I feel will at some point subside. Still thankful, though. 

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1. “The Name Game” – This game is appropriate for any age; I actually first learned of it while I was in college, as a participant – and it has stuck with me since. It will obviously take a few days (or weeks in my case) to learn all of your students’ names. But the name game is a fun way to start the year off with some camaraderie and laughs. Use the chairs to create a circle in the middle of the classroom and have each student tell the class their name and their favourite food. Start with the student to your right or left and go around the circle. Each person must repeat all the names and favourite foods of the students who went before them, plus their own. You should be the last to go. I usually like to make a “bet”. If I can’t remember all their names there will be no homework for the day. I obviously never remember everyone’s name on the first go around and the students get a good smile and laugh knowing they’re not getting any homework – which they wouldn’t have gotten anyway.

2. Let your students pick their own seats – I have read many blogs and sat through a few lessons during my time in teacher’s college in which educators would echo the exact opposite. They would talk about assigned seating being beneficial because it establishes order and it helps you remember your students’ names more efficiently. To me, that all sounds selfish. We shouldn’t be looking to make our jobs easier at the detriment of our students. I like to let my students pick their own seats because it allows me to see who is comfortable with whom and pick up on personality traits very early on. By letting your students pick their own seats, you will quickly notice the shy, anti-social ones that may require a little character building as well as the confident ones who are comfortable in any environment. Plus, allowing students to pick their own seats implicitly denotes a greater sense of maturity and responsibility. Make sure to make a point of this on the first day as well.

3. Get your students up and moving around the room – Your students are going to be spending the vast amount of time in your classroom sitting at their desks engaged in learning, they will become familiar with that thing. Spend time during that first day providing your students with opportunities to get familiar with the classroom and their peers. A strong classroom community is extremely integral to teaching effectively. And it is very tough to build a vibrant environment if having fun and interacting with peers in a playful manner inside the classroom is foreign to your students. Scavenger hunts, “people bingo”, and other camp-like games are perfect for setting that foundation of positive and productive group interaction and classroom culture.

4. Share stories, orally! – “Okay kids, take out a piece of paper. You are going to write about what you did this summer!” This statement is the most commonly shared nightmare among students worldwide. Okay, I don’t have the facts to back that up, but I would bet on it. Encourage students to share stories of summer vacation. It allows you to get an early glimpse at the potential classroom leaders as well as the wallflowers. But please, do not force them to write their what-I-did-this-summer out. It is boring, a waste of time and an ineffective diagnostic tool. Talk, communicate and grow as a class on the first day. Save the recount lessons for mid-September.

5. Your Core Rules – Every classroom teacher has their own procedures and policies. I don’t think the first day of school is really the time to belabor over them. I am more of the school of addressing instances as they arise but I do understand folks who prefer to “lay down the law” early. I think every school needs balance anyway, especially if we want to provide students a true reflection of the society they will one day enter into. But if you have any “core rules” – things that just itch at your soul – today is probably a good day to share them. I have only one – when I am talking to the class, nobody else is talking. Of course I have other small rules, but my core “rule” (I look at it as more of an expectation) is the one I make sure my students consistently oblige to. It probably won’t be the last day you share your core rules, but it is good to establish them. That way, you can always pull the “what is the one rule I’ve been saying since the very first day of school?” line to bring your students back to their senses on days where things just get a little too loose.

The possibilities are really endless for things to do on the first day back to school. But the activities you will decide upon depend on what you are really trying to establish within your classroom for the school year. For me, I think a classroom works most effectively when students are comfortable in their environment and authentic around their peers. That is why these five things work effectively for me – they help establish accountability, community, and communication. The first day will fly by and, hopefully, these things will make it a little less challenging.

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In regards to that first day back, it is true that nothing can really prepare you for that first day and especially those first few minutes. The best teachers are organized yet innovative. If you think the first day will be overwhelming for you, imagine how the students feel! Remember to take a second and slow down. Pause. Give your kids a breather. For me, organization is a key. I am naturally someone who is more inclined to go with the flow and respond on the spot. But I understand that when you have a million and one things that need to get done, putting pen to paper isn’t such a bad idea and will actually save you time in the long run. Lesson plans, unit plans, activity ideas, comment banks, are all things that can do nothing other than help a young teacher. I try to go over things with my students a few times to make sure that they understand.

The first day is one of the easiest but also most crucial days to set the tone for your class. Make sure you take advantage of the fact that although your students will be excited to be back around all of their friends and anticipating a new year, they will also be super receptive this day – picking up on your subtle cues as well as your “dos and don’ts”. Today is a day for you to learn your students but be careful…it is also a day for your students to learn you.

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1. Don’t Waste Time on Activities That Have No Relationship to Intellectual Development

Before I start, we must understand the distinction between intellectual and academic development. Establishing group and teacher-student relationships has a direct impact on intellectual development. These activities may not be “academic”, but they indeed have a relationship to intellectual development. Building a positive environment and establishing relationships that foster students’ ideas of themselves as positive and smart students can be achieved in many ways, but not with some “Happy New Years” worksheet that you hand out just to get students “back in the groove” of school.

2. Don’t Assume You Have Students Who Cannot Learn

I know by this time of year you have a solid grasp on the “capacity” of most, if not all, of the students in your classroom. But just because Michaela has struggled with your program since September does not mean that you should make hardline assumptions about the rest of her year. The break should have been a time for you to re-charge your spirits; meaning re-investing your interest in every student, just like you did on the first day of school in September. Spend that time with those students who may have slipped a bit.

3. Don’t Quantify Your Students’ Capacity Every Day

I know most teachers want, and assume, to get students back into routine quicker after the winter break than the summer one. That’s fine. But that doesn’t mean that we have to quantify every last thing students do from the minute they step back into the classroom. This “don’t” specifically relates to #2 mainly because a fault of teachers is we (a) quantify everything students do in the classroom with some sort of academic assessment, and (b) make permanent assumptions off of these quantifiers. Balance and patience is key, we will all get to the finish line. But, we will be more successful if we engage students through demonstrating that not every last thing is high-stakes.

4. Don’t Rush The Academics

This is an obvious but understated rule to all “back-to-school” dialogue. The truth is, there is no magic time frame where one makes the shift from “ice-breaker” or team-building style activities to curriculum centered learning. But, if you are not going to devote at least some portion of that first day back to holding a conversation with your class about the goings-on of their holidays, good luck building that relationship with them in the long run.

5. Don’t Do Exactly What You Did Last Year

This one may be a little bit confusing, but follow me. We want our students to improve, right? Well then, in some capacity we have to model this behavior. For us, this could be something as disconnected (although nothing we do as teachers is really disconnected to the way we teach) as a personal goal like getting healthier. It could be a professional goal like being more patient or more accessible. It could even be a new saying. Basically, if we want our students to continuously improve and better themselves, we have to demonstrate this act. For me, I try to time up my math and language so that I finish up units sometime during that last week in December. I like to start the new year brand new. New units, new lessons, a new resolution…shoot, I may even come back on the first day with a new Polo! Point being, model improvement in whatever capacity seems appropriate to you.

The stretch after the winter break is crucially important for your students and you yourself as you look to carry on what you have established and maybe even elevate the bar. There are many things you can do to ensure that you have a tremendous second half of the year. But, there are also some don’ts that, if you stay away from, will almost equally ensure that your time back from winter recess will be productive and off to a flying start!

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As I envision my first week back, I know that one of the most important messages that I want to foster within my students is that our classroom is a space where everyone has the potential to excel. No hierarchy of learners based on test scores and participation. No caste-like system based on the type of personality said teacher prefers. It sounds cliché, but on that very first day it is important to employ a variety of pedagogical strategies that serve to create a safe and validating atmosphere. That sounds great Matthew, now how the heck do I do that?

Slow down, let me lay out the importance of creating a space that maintains an expectation of inclusivity, validation and community. Students learn best when they feel capable of learning. I’m sure I could back link a hundred studies that prove this, but the logic is basic: if you feel important, validated and included, you are more confident – in everything you do. And we do have ten months to cover the curriculum, so before we crack open the textbooks and multiple choice tests, it is a good idea to create an atmosphere that students enjoy and can relate to. That is simple and plain. Creativity doesn’t spew out of dull grey cubicles; it comes from the drama-centered midday game activities and bright-colored, strangely refreshing spaces, like Google Headquarters.

So how do we do it? First off, be yourself. Yes, yes you always are yourself when teaching. Sure, but I am talking about connecting with students akin to the way an uncle or aunt would connect with a nephew or niece. Allow your students to own the space and lead the dialogue in the class. Share some stories about your personal life, nothing is wrong with that. Obviously and of course, there are many simple “ice breaker” camp-style games that are great for the first day so that students can get to know their peers and teachers get to know their students. That first week is about creating connections. Dialogue and subsequent authenticity of dialogue is the most expedient way to create these much-needed links.

Secondly, creating community in the classroom is vital to classroom synergy and learning. In fact, when you takes steps to remove your classroom from the traditional school-styled dictatorship or the individualized, everyone-for-themselves form of environment, it helps students see themselves as agents in their own learning which in turn creates ownership of said learning. And one way to get to that “Utopian state” is to provide students the opportunity to see their ownership of the classroom. Students come to school and are told to sit at a desk and not write on it because it is not theirs, put their things in a locker but make sure they bring a lock which, ultimately, can be broken off whenever the administration deems necessary, and handed textbooks with class-coded numbers that they must return at the end of the year. And we then wonder why students feel foreign in certain schools?

This year, during that first week, I am going to make a baby step to try and create ownership of learning through community. I am going to start with a brainstorm session with my students regarding their ideal classroom and throughout the week we will work to re-arrange our shared space. I guess it works to my benefit; I am not particular to how my classroom is arranged. Heck, I don’t even roll with a desk (dang, I bring that up too much). Allowing students to share their ideas and actually bring their visions of their classroom to reality starts the year with a sense of ownership of learning. Creating the classroom may be something many students couldn’t care less about or perhaps never even thought of. But the simple fact of allowing them to provide their thoughts to a space that has always seemed so not theirs may just bring the students together on a deeper level.

I would continue on with what else I envision doing during that first week, but I think the brief examples and follow-ups may actually take me through those first few days. And actually, I think I just “blogged out” my first day lesson plan.

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As I mentioned in a previous blog, I remember one summer I devoted a bunch of time to creating units and lesson ideas for a geography course. The school year came and went and I was never able to find the appropriate opportunity to infuse them. It is not that I forgot about them, it was just that they were not going to work with my students. Preparing over the summer was not a waste of time, I mean how many days do you actually need to “relax”. But it was slightly taxing on my psyche. For everything I emotionally gained by feeling well prepared and organized, I lost in thinking I had not done enough. So after that year was over, I made a promise to myself that I would keep in every summer break since then: do no think about school until it is time to think about school.

When you live in an area where school traditionally starts in September, once you catch a few pictures and videos on social media of kids back at school in other parts of the country, you know it is time to start shifting that brain back into “teacher mode”. And hopefully, you have to “turn it back on” because remaining in it for an entire summer can have you exhausted during a time when you are supposed to come back fresh and eager. We are at the t-minus a few weeks stage now, so over the next couple of days or weeks, it is the perfect time to start thinking and preparing for school again.

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You can’t sleep.

Just worried that you don’t have enough planned for tomorrow.

Or that your alarm won’t go off.

How are the students going to be this year?

Like Kendrick says, “we gon’ be alright!”

That night before the first day back to school for teachers is always a jagged one. Those last fleeting days of summer, ripe with nothingness and absolute autonomy, have come crashing to an end all too quick. Veteran teachers share stories about the “teacher dreams” that they have the nights leading up to the first day back. Visions of terrorizing students screaming obsententies the minute you walk through the door and every single class management strategy leading absolutely nowhere. Maybe you’ve had some of your own?

No wonder why going to sleep the night before the first day back is a challenge.

I have never really had any of these aforementioned “teacher dreams” the night before. Well none that I can vividly recall. But I do remember having teacher jitters the night before the first day of school. I would gear myself up during those nights leading up to the start of the school year by watching inspirational videos about the teacher’s worth as well as videos that offered wisdom and guidance for those in this oddly comforting profession. These videos got me to sleep in the days leading up to the school year. They indeed helped. I am sure each teacher finds their own routine and magic soother to get prepared for that first day back to school. Whatever it is, there are only two things to remember about your teacher jitters:

1) It will never be as bad as it seems

and,

2) the first day always flies by.

Goodnight.

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1. Get to Know Your Students

I know that this sounds obvious but what I mean here takes on a little deeper significance. If any week, that first week is a chance to really get to know your students. There are no impending deadlines, report cards are miles away, and the subconscious rush to assess your students’ “academic worth” can wait. I don’t mean get to know your students’ academic strengths and weaknesses. And I don’t mean hand out a sheet that asks students to fill out their favorite color and subject. What I mean here is taking the time in this first week to actually sit down and talk to your students. Sure, asking them about their summer is a good jump off point, but please don’t make them write about their summer like every other teacher in the building is doing. We want to build in our students a love for writing and communicating, not a disdain towards it. Take some time to have group conversations and individual ones where you take the role of facilitator, in a Socratic method style. Get to know them personally; their motivations, their drives, the things that trigger them – for better and worse. Take the time to do this and you will be on your way to building a solid synergy within your classroom.

2. Play

Now, I am speaking from my experience as an elementary educator. But this ideal can undoubtedly be applied to 16-year-old juniors as well. Many in education contend that there is no learning going on when students simply play. But what learning is happening when students are filling out a Scantron card? Play allows for students to explore, be creative, find unique solutions and problem solve. Isn’t that what we want out of our children? Drama games that involve students getting into different roles are great team building activities that will jumpstart your classroom community. Give that first week of class a retreat-like atmosphere, like the retreats that many corporate companies go on. Being cooperative and having fun is also learning. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Besides, it is the first week.

3. Fresh Start

When you start the school year you must be open and willing to giving every child a fresh start. I know that we say we do, but the instant that DeShawn disrupts the class all that “fresh start” stuff seems to disappear into thin air. You have to be truly conscious, patient and intentional with this philosophy. Don’t allow last year’s attitudes, report card grades or hearsay from other teachers dictate how you engage and look at your new students. Kids grow and mature over the summer, it is actually your responsibility to support this and make your students believe that this is true. Perception is reality – and that works both positively and negatively.

As you pick up your fresh attendance with a batch of new students and enter your classroom that first week, try to instill these three simple things into your practice. The first week should be about creating an effective and engaging classroom community built on trust, honesty and authenticity. These first week starters will go a long way in ensuring that your classroom is full of life and hardworking students for months to come.

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