Teacher Week- Creative Ideas

I just spent another day at school working in my new kindergarten classroom and planning with my team for the first two weeks of school.  Quite honestly, I don't feel as stressed or overwhelmed about the first two weeks as I thought I would.  I know this is a good year for me to have made a grade level change because I don't feel so depressed about going back to school, like I did at this time last year.  I'm actually excited!

So, on to Teacher Week.  I don't know if these ideas are creative, as much as they are helpful to me.  Without further ado,

Teacher Week: Creative Ideas

1.  Use Back to School Night to your advantage
For many of my students' parents, Back to School Night is the first and only time I will see them until parent-teacher conferences in early November.  Plus, research shows that parents are more likely to sign up for things like volunteering and conferences during their first time at school each year than at any other time during the school year.  Take advantage of this!  At Back to School Night, I have the following things available for parents:

- E-mail sign-up

- Parent-Teacher Conference sign-up

- Volunteering sign-up

- Room Parent sign-up

2.  Set up an e-mail list for your class
Taking the time to set up an e-mail list at the beginning of the year makes it so much easier to send classwide e-mails out to parents throughout the year.  Instead of typing in every address or going through my contact list each time I want to send out an update, I just type in "Parents10-11" and go to town with my e-mail.  This year at my school, we are required to send out a weekly e-mail update.  Having a group list will make this so much easier.

3.  Teach your students routines right from the start
In previous years, I've found that having very clear, concise, and predicatable routines for my students from the first day helps them to become independent in doing those routines much quicker.  We start our routines for the morning and afternoon on the first day of school, so they know what is expected of them immediately.  Of course, for the first week or so, I remind them, but by week 2, they usually know exactly what to do without verbal reminders. 

4.  Use music to control volume
Last year, I had a very chatty crew!  From the moment they walked into the door, they wanted to talk to each other.  I know how important it is for kids to have the opportunity for social interaction, but it really became too much.  The use of music really helped with this.  I had music playing softly when they came into the classroom in the morning.  Once I welcomed them and gave directions, I turned the music up slightly and they knew that their voices couldn't go above the music.  I even got student input about what kind of music to play, so they loved that!

I hope some of these tips are useful for some of you!  Have a great day!