12 Back To School Teaching Resources For The Best Year Ever
by TeachThought Staff
What are the best back to school teaching resources for 2020? Well, it will take us another 12 months to establish that, but we thought we’d get a head start by looking back.
The beginning of the school year is a critical time for teachers and students—get it wrong and you’re working from behind for months. Do it right and the rest of the year is comparatively effortless. Oftentimes, the beginning of the year is reduced to organization, setting class rules, learning names, and related ‘new year/new faces’ procedures. These things, of course, matter. A poorly-run and unfriendly classroom is a classroom no one wants to be in—teacher or student—no matter its other virtues.
So below, we’ve gathered a range of resources that you might find useful to get the year started right. From team-building to critical thinking and class rules and classroom design, we’ve incldued a little bit of everything.
12 Of The Best Back To School Resources To Get The Year Started Right
1. 10 Team-Building Games For The First Day Of Class
Why it’s important: As every teacher worth their salt knows, classroom climate (and school climate) affects everything, and team-building games can pay huge dividends for the rest of the year.
2. 50 Beginning Of The School Year Procedures For A Stress-Free Classroom
Why it’s important: High-quality teaching isn’t enough–it has to be sustainable for you and your students to continue to benefit from it throughout the year.
3. 8 Strategies To Help Students Ask Great Questions
Why it’s important: Inquiry, ideally, drives learning–and questions drive inquiry.
4. 10 Team-Building Games That Promote Critical Thinking
Why it’s important: See #1 and #5
5. A Really, Really Well-Written Set Of Classroom Rules
Why it’s important: A relationship without rules leads to chaos; rules without a relationship leads to rebellion. These classroom rules can help you walk that line.
6. 24 Things A Teacher Should Never Ask A Student To Do
Why it’s important: Knowing which potholes to avoid can go a long way towards keeping relationships intact and students feeling safe and cared for–intellectually, psychologically, and otherwise.
7. 26 Questions Every Student Should Be Able To Answer
Why it’s important: What are the things it is reasonable to expect most students to be able do–or more specifically, what questions should they be able to answer? Then, as mentioned below, plan backward from there.
8. 100 Things Students Can Create To Demonstrate What They Know
Why it’s important: What students say, do, think, and create ends being a beautiful debris for the school year itself. Start a little backward planning from beautiful and creative things, then.
9. 25 Of The Best Resources For Teaching Critical Thinking
Why it’s important: Never teach content–teach thought instead.
10. 20 Classroom Setups That Promote Thinking
Why it’s important: How you set your classroom up can actually impact the way students think–and thus think about themselves and their own learning.
11. The First 6 Weeks: Strategies For Getting To Know Your Students
Why it’s important: Relationships are the heartbeat of ‘classroom management.’ Along with lesson design, tone, and countless other factors, how you think of students and your own teaching will change the way you interact–and this starts with getting to know them.
12. 52 Of Our Favorite Inspirational Quotes For Teachers
Why it’s important: It’s easy to start the year off strong. Eventually, that energy will begin to wane and you’ll depend on sleep, coffee, your PLN, (reading TeachThought every day) and a little inspiration to pull you through.
Bonus
How To Get Along With Teachers That Think Differently Than You
Why it’s important: If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together. While collaboration is often over-emphasized between students and teachers alike, being able to work together and support one another throughout the school year is everything.
12 Of The Best Back To School Resources To Get The School Year Started Right
