Hooray for a new school year!

Wow! Summer zoomed by so quickly and now its back to school with a new group of little ones. I had forgotten how challenging the first few weeks of school can be, especially for students who have never been in a school setting before. Learning that there is a special way to ask for the bathroom, to walk in a line to recess, and general classroom behavior and manners is a lot for a little one to process. Even though the parents were asked to come visit our classroom on the first day of school, they had a tough time leaving their babies come the first ‘real’ day when they had to leave the classroom after dropping their child off.

In light of all of these transitions, we have come up with a few procedures to ease the kiddos into it:

• Conducting home visits to get to know parents and students outside of school–this has been immeasurably helpful in creating a culture of collaboration between the school and families and something I hope to write more extensively about soon
• Setting aside the first two weeks of school to focus on routines, procedures, and expectations before beginning with academic content. The first few weeks of school can set the tone for the entire school year. I want to be transparent with my expectations from the very beginning so that students can feel secure in knowing exactly what is expected of them. In past years, I have been pleasantly surprised at my students’ ability to follow directions, and I think this is due to the clear and consistent expectations beginning from day 1 of school.
• Taking frequent pictures of students and texting them to parents. Parents worry when they see their babies crying as they are left alone for the first time at school. I like to catch students smiling or engaged in an activity so that parents can see that their child is indeed adjusting to the classroom.
• Frequent push-in from co-curricular teachers, aides, and administrators to assist in comforting the criers. Thank goodness for the support of my school! It can be next to impossible to accomplish anything when a child is screaming on the top of her lungs. It has been so helpful to have administrators and other teachers popping in periodically to soothe those who need it. This leaves me to focus on engaging the rest of the class in something meaningful.