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Best Secondary Resources for Back-to-School

 

Planning for back-to-school just got easier with this carefully curated list of ideas, tips, suggestions, and resources for your secondary classroom – in any subject!

1) Teacher Planning and Organization: Calendars, planners, notes, Oh My! The list goes on and on for what the teacher needs to get organized and feel ready-to-go for the first days of school.  For me, that’s my planner and my high-level curriculum map.  In the past it has been hard to find a planner perfectly suitable to the unique schedules of the secondary world, so I made some.  And then I made some more!  Now I have a fun line of different themes tailored specifically to the various schedules in a middle or high school – in traditional and digital formats.

Choose a planner that works for you, and get comfortable with it.  I like a planner that is only for planning because it helps me keep focused.  Watch a quick Facebook live video where I explain how I set mine up, and I also wrote a blog post explaining how to get the most out of your planner. Read that post here.

https://juliefaulknersblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/eplanner-commercial.mp4

 

My friend Lauralee over at Language Arts Classroom wrote about her process for classroom organization over on her beautiful blog. You can read her ideas here. And her back-to-school pack of goodies will establish consistency in your secondary classroom from the first day of school with this organizational bundle. Included are an editable presentation covering routines, procedures, and expectations; hallway passes; a parent letter; Google Classroom Backgrounds, and syllabus. The design is clean and simple and made with older students in mind.  So pretty!

Secondary Classroom First Days of School Presentation, Parent Letter, and More

2) Classroom Decor: Decorating and organizing my classroom is probably one of my favorite things to do to get me in the mood for back-to-school. I don’t always do a lot with decor each year, but I always try to bring in one or two things new. I’ll pause here to address the camp of people that say, “It’s not about the room. The kids just want to meet you, the teacher.”  That’s true… to some degree.  However, I think the room needs to be as clean and organized as possible to create a welcoming environment, but I think the aforementioned sentiment comes from the place where teachers go regarding overspending and unhealthy comparing.  To read more on that topic, swing by this blog post: How my trip to Magnolia Market helped me prepare for back-to-school. With that said, I’d love to share some cute student-centered and student-created classroom decor supplies and ideas.  If an activity can double as classroom door (AKA – the kids create it and I don’t have to), then that is perfect to me.  For all my secondary math friends out there, take quick trip over to Math in the Middle’s blog and read her post on setting up your middle school math classroom. She has tons of practical ideas and pictures!   Scaffolded Math and Science does just that for her middle school math classroom with her back-to-school math pennants.  Some pennants ask students to fill in information about themselves (name, birthday, favorite color, favorite class), some have numbers of the Fibonacci Sequence within the Spiral, and others are more open-ended for coloring or adding what you’d like to see on the pennants. Super cute!

Back to School Math Pennant and Glyph Activity

O Some Great Stuff for English Teachers has her students create “Share Your World” globes that reveal their true identities.  Perfect classroom decor and icebreaker all in one!  I typically have my freshmen do a Soundtrack of their Life, but I think I’ll add this activity in as well!

BACK TO SCHOOL Share Your World Creative Activity

The growth mindset trend continues to grow, and I think that’s because it’s actually something that makes sense and works! Chalk Dust Diva has a no-prep set of posters she made for any subject at the secondary level that you could use a million different ways!  Promoting growth mindset is also an excellent way establish a positive classroom climate, and Chalk Dust Diva has a creative presentation and reading lesson that will teach your student what it means to have a “growth mindset” and how the views and beliefs they have about themselves impacts the decisions they make and the lives they lead.

Growth Mindset Posters - Fixed vs Growth Mindset

Sometimes just putting a few posters around the room will help spruce things up a little, too, and I love reminding students that how we treat each other is so important.  Grab my free anti-bullying awareness posters here. They are super easy to print and go!

3) Housekeeping: We all have to satisfy requirements from admin, ensure communication with parents, track data, make sub plans, keep attendance, and more. Here are a few resources to help make all that easier.  Math by the Mountain keeps office hours, and she posts them for students and parents.  This idea really helps students respect boundaries and take ownership.  Elly Thorsen fixed up a parent and student survey in English and Spanish, which I think is awesome to already have that done! It provides information about how to contact family members, the strengths and areas of need of the student, and other helpful information to know as a teacher.

Unfortunately, a major issue we have to plan for is absenteeism.  Free to Discover created a cute set of absentee slips to help students stay organized if they have been out.  They are free; grab them here.  I also write weekly assignments on the board each week and post the list on the Google Classroom stream.  Having a method for tracking data is another item on our back-to-school list, and I like to set up a way for that to be student-centered. Take a quick look at a blog post I wrote about how I track data. It’s super simple, and best of all — it’s authentic and collected by students! Read that post here. Grab my data pack here… or get it in a money-saving bundle of other great back-to-school goodies for any subject at the secondary level here.

Sub plans are another item on my back-to-school to-do list as well. I usually grab the matching Sub Plans label (from the planners I make) and fix up a new 3-ring binder with the daily schedule, class rosters, seating charts, and school emergency plan. Then, I’ll add a few emergency lessons in another section just in case of an unexpected absence.  In my high school English classroom, I typically use my Hot Topics Info Text lessons because they are no prep and have the substitute instructions sheet included.

Hot Topics Informational Text Lessons: BUNDLE, Set 1

4) Classroom Climate: From the moment students step foot in the classroom, they need to feel welcomed.  Even though, we may not as secondary teachers do a hug or high five with each student who enters, we can set a positive and inviting tone.  Icebreakers and team building games play a role in creating a welcoming environment for students.  Teens love to talk, but they are pretty insecure when it comes to speaking up and out in class.  These conversation starters from Pathway 2 Success are a flexible way to get kids chatting.  The 170  task cards are the ideal mix of questions regarding self, home, friends, school, family, and beliefs. They would be awesome to help students share information, open up, and begin to form positive relationships.

Conversation Starters for Middle and High School

Escape games are still really hot right now, and I know my kids would love to participate in one as an icebreaker on the first day of school.  Presto Plans won’t let her middle school students zone out on the first days of school! Her back-to-school zombie escape game is highly engaging! It can be used in English class as it incorporates some ELA skills, but can also work for any other subject.

BACK TO SCHOOL ESCAPE ROOM: ZOMBIE TEACHER

Lit with Lynns created one that will work with any class.  Her game includes a crossword puzzle, a completely EDITABLE syllabus accompanied by a syllabus scavenger hunt, and a get to know other students activity. I love that it’s a quick 3-puzzle game, so it doesn’t take up too much time, but lets kids have a little fun! Barraug Books and Curriculum goes old school for her back-to-school team building game: Cup Towers. While students are racing against the clock to build the tallest cup tower, you are evaluating their strengths and interpersonal skills. It’s a win-win!

First Day of School Icebreaker: Cup Towers

Since I’m not a science teacher, it didn’t even occur to me that part of setting up a classroom climate should include safety measures until I saw this science lab for teaching science lab safety from Strawberry Shake! This resource contains everything you need to get your students started safely in your lab or science classroom, and I think your middle school science kids would love it.

Andrea from Right Down the Middle has a cool idea for incentives, which an excellent tool for positive classroom management. Students are able to earn reward incentives through their kind deeds, actions, and performance in class, then they cash them in at various times during the year.

Reward Coupons for Positive Behavior Management: Reward Coupons and Incentives

Bell ringers are probably the #1 activity teachers need in their toolbox to set the stage for class right from the beginning of the year.  Part of classroom climate, to me, is structure and order.  Bell ringers say to students: We are going to be serious about work and have purpose in this class.  Content-specific bell ringers are meaningful for your subject matter, and they teach students to get busy and orderly right from the start of class.  Spanish teachers can also set things up for each day of school with Angie Torre’s Spanish Bell Ringers.  They are packed full of tasks to challenge your high school students.  I love use to grammar bell ringers with my high school English classes.  Ten minutes each day covers a lot of ground in grammar, and my students are working from bell to bell.

Last but not least, are the classroom rules… but going over classroom rules doesn’t have to be boring! I created these fun emoji puppets that I use every year with my high school students on the first day of school.

If setting up station rotations is more your idea of fun for addressing classroom rules and procedures, check out of a few of these ideas: With Tween Spirit’s back to school stations, students search the syllabus, take selfies, and more.  Room 213 sets up stations, too, and she has students setting goals, meeting classmates, and learning rules.

Back to School Getting-to-Know-You Stations

5) Activities and Lessons: A teacher can never have too many back-to-school activities, in my opinion. It’s like a girl with her shoes – something to match each outfit and/or situation. If you are like me, once you do a few icebreakers and go over classroom rules, you are ready to get to work. A good place to start is with review.  Real Lessons for the Teenage Mind has a bundle of review activities for English skills that would be perfect for your middle school students because they combine authenticity, movement, competition, and collaboration to make sure your students stay engaged and build a positive classroom culture in the first week.  I like to use my 100 Words Every High School English Student Should Know list as a pre-test to see where students are with their Tier 3 Vocabulary.  Science teachers can review key terms and even lab safety with The Lab’s Back to School Science Color by Number Activity Bundle.

Back to School Science Color by Number Activity Bundle

If you teach middle or high school Spanish, you are going to love The Stress Free Spanish Teacher’s Spanish Llama Mystery Pictures. We all have that crazy picture day right at the beginning of school, and these are so clever. I laughed out loud when I saw them! Spanish Mystery Pictures, Llama Mystery Pictures, School Picture Day Fun!

Once the first few days are over, then what?  Start looking at long-term units and units that build on each other through the year.  OCBeach Teacher has her students working on writing prompts that encourage students to think critically about situations requiring problem solving.  Teacher of any high school subject who want to get in more reading and writing this year could take a look at my no prep Article of the Week Resource.  Reading pedagogy suggests that students are most successful with a text when they revisit it more than once with a different and meaningful purpose each time. The “article of the week” approach does that. Get ready for standardized reading assessments and improve your students’ reading and comprehension skills a little at a time week over week!

https://juliefaulknersblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/aow-google.mp4

 

I also love this email etiquette mini unit from Reading and Writing Haven.   She said, “You might be surprised to learn that 91% of people check their email daily. It’s a real-life skill. Email is the #1 app used on a smart phone. In short, email matters. We need to teach students how to represent themselves well when communicating in this genre.”  Melissa is passionate about helping teachers help kids gain the skills they need to function in the real-world, and this mini unit is the perfect way to set kids up for success during those first days of the year.

How to Write an Email to Teachers: Email Etiquette Mini-Unit

Luke Rosa from Students of History says, “As all teachers know, it is [going to be] a long school year. Over the course of [the next] 180 school days, there are bound to be point where both you as a teacher, and the students, are burned out, bored, or just otherwise not excited about the curriculum.”  Bookmark his blog post, “6 Awesome Insta-Worthy Classroom Activities.”  I plan to visit it throughout the year to give myself a little boost when the activity idea bank starts running low.

Here’s to a great school year. Please feel free to link up in the comments what you use and do successfully for back-to-school!

Love this content? Join a group!  There are already tons of ideas, freebies, and fabulous teachers in my new groups, and joining is simple.  Just click over to the following links, answer a few questions, and voila! Thanks again for following along my classroom stories and small-business journey, and I really do hope you to see you over in my new “backyards” where we can chat and share all things English and Yearbook.

Written 7/2019
Cover Photo Matt Raglan

Filed Under: back to school, backwards planning, classroom decor, Classroom Management, classroom organization, classroom routines, classroom success stories, classroom teaching strategy, classroom theme, daily grammar program, data charts, data portfolio, data story, data tracking, secondary classroom management, secondary classroom organization, secondary classrooms, secondary ELA, secondary english classroom organization, secondary English Teachers Leave a Comment

Formula for Classroom Success Series Post #5: Planning

I’ve mentioned several times before here on the blog that planning is one of my favorite parts of teaching. I truly do believe, though, that without a plan – good or great – you just aren’t going to have the same success as you would without one at all.  Yogi Berra said, “If you don’t know where you are going, you might end up some place else.”  That kind of lack of direction creates confusion and frustration for teachers and students.  Here a couple of things I keep in mind when I plan.
1) Backward Planning.
Start with the end in mind.  In my opinion, that doesn’t just mean start thinking about the fun project that you’ll have your students complete at the end of the unit. The end can be a fun project, but the backwards planning model means putting the skills, knowledge, and concepts students will learn first, then the product second. Backward planning allows you to see what you really need to accomplish with a task, unit, or assignment.  And mostly importantly – for me, anyway – it helps me know where I’m going in the grand scheme of the year so I know I cover everything and do everything with a purpose. So, how do it do it? I basically start with my standards, and since I teach high school English, I look specifically at the writing standards first. Organizing my units by a specific writing mode – rather than chronologically like the textbook – allows me to choose model texts and/or texts that lend themselves to writing for that mode.  Along the way, I teach the texts as a vehicle for that end product rather than just teaching the texts in isolation.  I want the students to be able to transfer the skills we learn from each text and within each unit to other texts and tasks throughout the year.
2) Drill down to monthly, weekly, and daily planning.
Once I have my high level plan in place, I drill down to my monthly, weekly, and daily planning.  This is where my cute, little planner comes into play. I’ve tried just about every type of planner available but was just never satisfied. A couple years ago, I sat down and just decided to make my own – a planner for a secondary teacher with three preps. Just a planner for my planning with lots of space.  It worked out very well, and each year I’ve created a fun, new design. This year’s design is Nautical with beautiful watercolor and gold graphics! So, how do I use it? At the beginning of each semester, I pull out the monthly overview pages, and I sketch out what I hope to accomplish that month based off my high level map.  There are usually lots of changes, scribbles, and eraser dust all over the page before I get finished. It’s a fluid document throughout the entire month and year.  Also, I can fill in any holidays, scheduled special events, etc. in the month overview to eliminate as many surprises as possible.  For weekly planning, I use the weekly pages and jot out my main ideas and topics. That’s the sheet I turn into admin. Finally, for daily planning, well that’s very specific, and it’s what you get with every lesson in my TpT store – a formal teacher’s guide complete with essential questions, CCSS, suggestions for the “I do, we do, you do” model, differentiation ideas, extension, and more.  It’s a process, but having all this written down allows me to reflect and evaluate when the year is over in order to be more successful next
year.
Teacher Binder Planner Calendar, Secondary Teacher with Mu
 3) Logistically planning.
When thinking about the day-to-day lessons, there are many things to consider that could prevent or promote classroom success: number of students, capability of students, class time, time of year, class space, technology availability, and more.  You can’t think of everything, certainly, but having an awareness of these can help set you on the right track.
4) Options and Backup Plans.
I was teaching theme development (lesson here) one day and was ready to play the audio of the song that I use to model the strategy, when in walks the principal for a pop eval.  I looked
around for my iPod where I had the song stored, only to realize that I had left it in my car. Now, thankfully, we have access to the Internet and youtube.com in each classroom. But I still wasn’t ready for a seamless transition – there goes a few points.  I was panicking in my head, but I was able to stall a little by having the students pause and review/summarize what we’d already done in class while I pulled up the song – points recovered.  Thankfully, the song was available, and it played with no problems. The principal was even singing along! He never knew that wasn’t the plan; however, it doesn’t always go that way.  I’ve had bulbs go out in my projector and have to get a neighbor to watch my class while I rushed to the copy room, or forget to make the handout and students have to copy it all down, which slowed my lesson down.  There are numerous things that can wrong, and since don’t have a crystal ball, it’s hard to predict them all. However, a Plan B or C when possible is not a bad idea.
5) Brain-based Strategies for All learning Styles.
I am a huge fan of Marcia Tate, and I was fortunate enough to hear her speak several years ago when I was still young in my teaching career. She has tons of amazing ideas, advice, and resources, but the thing that has stuck with me the most over the years is her list of 20 brain-based strategies.  I keep this list in my planner, and try to include as many each week as I can.  It’s not feasible to do them all every single day or each week in some cases, but the goal of using as many as I can helps keep my class fresh and engaging for all learning styles as often as possible. I like her list because it’s simple and doable, and we all know busy teachers need simple and doable.
Here is a video where Marcia shares and explains some of her strategies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CedEizNg9mc
This is the end of my series on strategies for having your own classroom success story! I hope that I’ve been able to provide some insightful tips and practical ideas that you can use in your classroom, and if you have ideas to add, please share them in the comments below!
See MORE classroom decor and organizational pics at these posts, too!
Student-Centered Bulletin Boards 
Vintage Classroom Decor
Faulkner's Fast Five Blog

Love this content? Join a group!  There are already tons of ideas, freebies, and fabulous teachers in my new groups, and joining is simple.  Just click over to the following links, answer a few questions, and voila! Thanks again for following along my classroom stories and small-business journey. I really do hope you to see you over in my new “backyards” where we can chat and share all things English and Yearbook.

Written by: Julie Faulkner

Filed Under: backwards planning, marcia tate, planning, teacher calendar, teacher planner, Uncategorized 4 Comments

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