When thinking about the first day, week, month of school in a new school year are you more anxious or excited? For me I am always excited. Excited to start something new, from new posters to class organization to a new ice breaker activity. There are always so many new things I want to try and incorporate. But where to start? Do you start with designing your space? Do you start with what new first week lessons you will do? And in this day and age, Do you start with designing and getting ready your virtual learning space?

For me, I always started with the space. I always felt like, once I knew how the classroom should feel and look, other things feel into place. For example, once I figured out the flow of the room, like where the desks/tables were and where the work pick up/drop off/missing went, I could then see how students would move about the room from entering to groupings. This always then helped me visualize what the lessons should look like because I could see how the groupings, labs, activities would flow and what would make the most sense in the space we had.

So, if we are starting with the space, are you a get everything new kind of person or a I am reusing the same posters I’ve had for ages kind of person? For me, I generally started all new. I might reuse bins, containers, cubbies, and other stuff like that, but in general all the signs were brand new. I loved creating new classroom door decor, new labels for work stations, even creating new desk bins that would be at each students spots. I also loved creating the materials, from student handouts to posters, for whatever routines I was going to put in place that year. The change in decor and routines helped me feel even more like I was getting a new group of students. Teaching science in a high school, there were many times that I had repeating students and changing up the classroom help me define it for them and me that this was a new class.

I would love to hear what you guys do and where you find the most struggles, so leave a comment below!