Three EasyWays to the Start the Year on the Right Foot

Hello friends!!

I'm Erin - and I blog over at Learning to be AWESOME and I am SOOOOOOO super pumped to be guest blogging here today!  Can I just say how honoured I am to be here.

Quick three things about me - I'm in New Zealand (hence any spelling differences, I apologise in advance!!) , I teach a year 3/4 class (that is grade 2/3 in America), and I this is my 9th year teaching!  I love it!

Anyway, back to why I'm really here!  I've got three super easy and fun ways to make sure you start your year off on the right foot.  Whether you are a first year teacher, or heading into your 20th first day - we all have to make sure we start with the end in mind!

 Learn your kiddo's names as quick as you can!  The sooner you can attach a name to a face, the sooner you can begin to build a relationship with your students.  Having a relationship is the all time best way to really teach your students!

My absolute favourite is "Two truths and a lie."  It's so much fun watching the kids when they try and keep their lie a secret.  8 year olds are terrible liars!

Get your parents involved as soon as possible.  I have a class blog where we share our day to day learning.  Day one is when I send home the link to this blog.  I have had so much more parental involvement in my class since starting this blog, and my kiddos love being able to share their learning with their parents in this way!
I also dojo.  Class Dojo that is!  I love how engaging this programme is, and my parents are super involved in every part of their child's learning now too as a result!  My favourite part about it is that I can text a parent from my phone through the app - so they get the information I need to share, but my number is kept secret!  Win-Win.

There are so many ways to start the year off right, but this final idea I'm going to share with you would HAVE to be my biggest tip.  Seriously, it took me about 3 years to sort my life out in this regard.  But I finally did, and my teaching life has thanked me for it ever since.
Before you get your class list, before you set up your room, before you even set foot on school grounds for the year - STOP AND THINK.

Think about WHY you do things - why do you set your desks/tables up the way you do?  Why do you have kids line up in two lines instead of one?  Why do you have students use red pen to underline their spelling errors?
Think about HOW you want to do things - HOW will you get your students' attention?  HOW will you move around the school?  HOW will you collect papers/supplies?
Think about WHEN you will do things - WHEN will you teach maths?  WHEN will you give out notices to take home?

The more you have your routines set in your head BEFORE you start the year, the smoother the teaching of these routines will be.  Oh and don't kid yourself - this teaching will take at least 4 weeks, if not longer. Teach, teach, and reteach throughout the year!

I hope you are able to use some of these ideas in your class this coming Back TO School!  I'm in my winter term here in New Zealand, but I still have to go over some of those routines that my kiddos have forgotten...

Thanks again to the team at iTeachTHIRD for letting me crash their party today!  I had so much fun!
Grab yourself a freebie to help get to know your class this back to school season!

The download includes UK and US spelling!