Our Best Tools for First-Day Planning [episode 145]

Emily  0:36

Hey there, thanks for joining us. Today we are sharing our best teacher approved tips for planning the first day of school and sharing some highlights from Episode 77.

Heidi  0:47

As you are working on your back to school plans, we have several tools that can help you out. To start with, we have a procedures and routines planning guide, which does exactly what it says it helps you plan your procedures and routines.

Emily  1:01

We have our seating chart tool to help you set up your classroom in a way that supports your learning goals. And to help you teach your procedures and expectations, we have a set of tell try tally slides, and a set of Guided Discovery slides and printables. That’s a very robust resource.

Heidi  1:18

Yeah, that’s a resource that will help you introduce your classroom materials to your students so that they understand how to treat all of the stuff that you are so lovingly preparing for them with respect. And that has been a huge favorite with teachers ever since we launched it.

Emily  1:32

Very popular. We have our first day of school guide to help you plan your schedule and activities for the first week of school.

Heidi  1:39

And one of my favorite back to school resources is our pattern block set. You could use it at any point of the first few weeks of school, but we designed it specifically to work as the first activity of the first day of school. It’s calming and welcoming for the kids. And low stress low prep for the teacher. Win win.

Emily  1:58

And don’t worry if that sounds like it’s a lot to keep track of. We have a new resource to help you out. These are our ready for school checklists. They’re in Google Sheets. So they’re 100% editable, and will help you map out the runway to your first day of school. And from there, we can link you to all the resources we have available to help you.

Heidi  2:18

And if you’re listening to this episode in July of 2024, you’re in luck. For a limited time these checklists are all available for free. Because we love our dear podcast listeners. Just head to secondstorywindow.net/ready to get your own set.

Emily  2:36

But first, let’s walk you through what you’ll find when you open them. First, we have a place for you to reflect on what back to school readiness means for you, and what tasks you need to accomplish to get you there. There’s also a sheet for your ATTABOY goals.

Heidi  2:50

We talked about ATTABOY in our last episode as well. So go back and check that out if you missed it.

Emily  2:55

Next, there’s a sheet to brained up everything that’s on your mind. Once it’s out of your head, we can start assigning tasks where they need to go.

Heidi  3:02

There are six things you need to have ready before school starts. If only it were six quick tasks, they’re little bit long, but you can do it. You need to have your room ready, your supplies ready, your procedures ready, your welcome ready, your first day ready, and yourself ready. Check out episode 142 for a breakdown of those six tasks.

Emily  3:22

We have separate lists for each of those tasks that includes a to do list and some extra support. For example, to get your supplies ready, we have a checklist of tasks that need to be done. You need to label your desks and figure out how students will store their supplies, and make a plan for managing papers.

Heidi  3:38

All that fun stuff. But we also have a second checklist where you can list the supplies you need for each individual student that will help make sure that you have what you need for each kid. But you can also use that list to help make supply bags for any new students you might get during the year.

Emily  3:50

There are also daily to do lists so you can make sure you’re getting everything done. And we’ve included some extra lists for planning the second day of school.

Heidi  4:03

Right, you may as well get day two ready while you’re prepping day one so that you can leave school on time on that first day.

Heidi  4:10

And once you’ve got all your plans in place, you can put together your first day scripts. A script is kind of like writing sub plans for yourself. The first few days of school are so chaotic, it’s helpful to have everything you need to remember written down in front of you so you can reference it as you go through getting kids settled in their new desks and teaching them how to use your pencil sharpener.

Emily  4:32

And the 1,001 other tasks you have to remember on the first day. Keep listening to this replay of episode 77 where we talk all about how a first day script can be your new best friend.

Emily  4:45

Anyone who has taught school before knows that the first day of school isn’t a day as much as it’s an event. And like any event it requires a detailed plan.

Heidi  4:56

So as we were prepping for this episode, I just kept thinking of this one, this one memory. So take a little journey back with me to 2001 when the time this rom com The Wedding Planner debuted.

Emily  5:09

Yay. I love a rom com throwback. The Wedding Planner is a classic.

Heidi  5:15

It is such a classic, maybe a little problematic, but we’re not going to dwell on that. I want you to remember the beginning of that movie. Jennifer Lopez’s character is pulling together all of the last minute details of a wedding. Right she’s soothing the brides cold feet, she’s fixing dresses, coordinating the flower girl and finding the missing father of the bride.

Emily  5:36

Or sobering him up with a little scent like under her shirt. So good.

Heidi  5:41

And everywhere. She turns right, there’s just another task that needs attention, that she is equipped, thanks to all of her meticulous preparation. And that is what we need as teachers when we are starting the school year.

Heidi  5:56

We need a multiperson team carrying out our list of tasks. We need in ear communication to keep everyone on track. Yes, we need that tool belt stocked with a sewing kit and band aids and krazy glue and whatever you need to sober up the father of the bride. And we also need Judy Greer is our assistant of course.

Emily  6:15

Yes. Where do I get one of those?

Heidi  6:17

Can you tell that I rewatched the beginning of The Wedding Planner for this episode twice I watched it.

Emily  6:23

Well, what choice did you have? Had to happen.

Heidi  6:26

But unfortunately, as you may have noticed, we do not have any of J Lo’s resources. And no matter how often we invite her, Judy Greer fails to show up on the first day of school every time so rude. Yeah, so on the big day, really, it is just us and whatever we have managed to plan.

Emily  6:46

Oh, and that means that if our plans are the only thing standing between us and a sea of chaos and exhaustion, then the quality of those first day plants really matters.

Heidi  6:58

I know for a lot of years, I kind of left planning until the last minute before school started. I just really didn’t know what to do between the start of school and the start of teaching the actual content. So I just put off planning until I was forced to decide, really more than once, as soon as I said goodbye to the last of the families at the open house. I just turn around and walk straight to my computer to finally figure out what was going to happen the next day.

Emily  7:28

Oh, yeah.

Heidi  7:29

And you know, what I ended up with was fine. But it was definitely more about filling the time well, instead of using the time well.

Emily  7:37

I think a lot of teachers feel that way. We’re taught so much about how to write lesson plans, but not a lot about how to start a school year, even though that’s so important. So it’s only natural that we default to whatever we find on Pinterest and hope it gets us through to the point we can start teaching our first units, because that part we know how to do.

Heidi  7:59

But when we look at our first day plans, we can do so much better than fine.

Emily  8:04

Yeah, let’s set the bar a little higher there.

Heidi  8:07

We can turn our first days of school into a gift. It gives us this time to really lay the foundation for a successful school year.

Emily  8:17

So with the goal of being very intentional, we don’t write first day plans, we write a first day script. And in this episode, we’re going to tell you the three reasons why we think a first day script can benefit you.

Heidi  8:32

To begin, think of a script as kind of like writing sub plans for yourself. For every activity that needs to happen in the day you’ll write down everything you need to remember.

Emily  8:43

The goal here is to make this document hold the billion and one details you need to keep track of so your brain doesn’t have to. For example, one of the first events in the school day is morning announcements followed by the pledge.

Emily  8:58

So I write down remind students to pay attention to announcements. Explain who leads the pledge each day, help the student lead the pledge. Tell the students they have five more minutes to finish their arrival activity. Then in capital letters. I have sent attendance and lunch count. I don’t want to start the year by having the office mad at me.

Heidi  9:18

That is just to get us through morning announcements. I know that my first day script was usually around eight pages. And I made sure to include every little detail. Even if I was pretty sure I would remember in the moment. I just didn’t want to risk overlooking something. Plus, you know why give myself one more thing to keep track of when I can just write it down.

Emily  9:40

Which brings us to the first reason why a first day of school script is so valuable it is your safety net. During the regular school year, you have the power of your schedule to carry you through from one lesson to the next. But that doesn’t work at the start of the year.

Heidi  9:56

You don’t have any routine to rely on. So let your script do the work of keeping you on track and reminding you of the details you need to cover.

Emily  10:06

This may sound a little rigid, but a script actually is what allows you to be flexible. If your get to know you activity runs long and you need to cut something, your script helps you easily identify what can be pushed till tomorrow.

Heidi  10:20

It is so hard to pace that first day. And if you are a new teacher trying to figure that out. And it feels tricky, it’s because it is tricky. Yes, everything you plan will either run long or end more quickly than you expected. But a script gives you the flexibility to pivot as needed.

Emily  10:37

It also helps you know exactly what you’ve covered and what you haven’t. That first day is such a blur. And it’s easy to forget what you did, especially if you had to cut something out of your plans. If I meant to introduce the class library, but didn’t have time, my script will remind me to move that into my day two plans.

Heidi  10:59

And if you are teaching multiple classes, a detailed script is a valuable tool to ensure consistency across all of your classes. It ensures that you’re giving each class all of the information they need.

Emily  11:11

Yeah, that would be hard to keep track of mentally if you’re teaching the same thing over and over.

Emily  11:17

Which brings us to the second reason that we love a first day script. Besides being a safety net, a script offers you support. It’s like Judy Greer right there reminding you that you’ve got this, you’ve thought through every moment, you’ve even accounted for the unexpected. It’s such a comfort knowing you have a well thought out roadmap for a positive first day.

Heidi  11:42

And a script supports you by helping you preserve your energy. If you have made most of your decisions in advance, you are reducing a lot of the decision fatigue, that can quickly drain your battery.

Emily  11:55

And if you’re getting to the end of the first day even slightly less tired, then that’s definitely a win. Always, I can’t promise you won’t be tired at all, but maybe less tired, slightly less.

Heidi  12:08

Besides offering you support, your script can also offer support to a new teacher or teammate. It’s so helpful for newer teachers to have someone else’s plans to reference

Emily  12:18

Oh, yeah, I would have been lost if I hadn’t had your first day plans to refer to for my first year of teaching.

Heidi  12:25

And being the person that had the plants to share, it really felt like a gift to be able to have a lifeline that I could throw to you when I knew how much you were struggling starting the school year, because it’s so hard.

Emily  12:37

It’s so hard. And I didn’t have a lot of support at my school to start the year. So I was kind of drowning.

Heidi  12:43

And it also would be a great way to help out a new teammate, even if they’re not new teachers. And even if they don’t use it, just being able to reference it will be so helpful to them.

Emily  12:54

Yeah, it will help them know how your school works and they’ll know that you’re a good teammate that they can rely on.

Heidi  13:01

A first a script really is a clear source of support. And I wouldn’t want to try and navigate the first day without that safety net. But I think the biggest benefit of a script is the freedom it provides.

Emily  13:13

Yeah, it might seem strange to associate a highly detailed plan with freedom. But that’s exactly what it is.

Heidi  13:22

You know, as we have mentioned several times, there are so many details to keep track of on the first day. Just for the three minutes it takes to get to recess, the kids need to know where the nearest bathrooms and drinking fountains are, they need to know how to line up, how to walk quietly in the halls and which doors to exit. And depending on how complicated those procedures are at your school, at my school, they’re a little tricky, you might need 20 minutes or more to teach all of that.

Emily  13:49

It’s so much to keep track of all at once. And if my brain is trying to remember the 55 steps it’s going to take to get ready for lunch. I can’t be the kind of teacher I want to be on the first day. I want to be connecting with my students. I want to be learning who loves horses and who loves Minecraft, and who might need a hug because they’re feeling a little overwhelmed.

Emily  14:11

I don’t want to be distracted trying to remember every tiny detail that has to be addressed, which is what happens when you try and keep it all in your head.

Heidi  14:18

So a script really gives me the freedom of being able to focus on my new little students, just because all of those details are out of my head and on the paper.

Emily  14:28

It also gives your students the freedom to settle into their new space. If the teacher is confidently leading the day, it helps kids feel more comfortable in your care.

Heidi  14:38

Just think how great it’ll feel to get to the end of that first day feeling you were protected by your safety net, supported through a draining day and have the freedom to be the kind of teacher that you want to be.

Emily  14:51

And then you’re ready to figure out what to teach on day two.

Heidi  14:54

It’s a vicious cycle. Day two, it really is not my It’s easier than day one. So it probably won’t surprise anyone that I wrote a day two script too. In fact, I wrote a script every day for the first week. Now, by the time we were getting to the second week, the kids were feeling more settled, and we’d established something of a regular routine.

Heidi  15:18

And that just makes less than planning so much simpler. But until then, my scripts kept me on track. If I didn’t get to something one day, it was just really easy to plug it into the next day’s plans.

Emily  15:29

Now, as great as a script is, it does take some effort. But the payoff of that work is starting the year with a positive engaging tone. And to me, that was worth the work.

Heidi  15:40

Yeah, it does feel like a lot of work at the outset. But when you have done the work, once you are set up for next year, it’s so nice to open that file and just see it already to go. Even if you change grade levels, a lot of your first day can be reused and modified for the appropriate grade level.

Emily  15:58

A script also gives you a set place for collecting any notes about the first day. You can use those reflections to tweak your plans and keep perfecting your script a year after year.

Heidi  16:09

Plus, this prevents you from lying to yourself and telling yourself that you’ll remember what you did this year.

Emily  16:15

No, you will not.

Heidi  16:16

You will not. So taking the time to write everything down now will help you this year, and also for lots of years to come.

Emily  16:25

And if you are interested in taking a look at our first day of school script for second grade, we will link to that in the show notes. We also have an editable script that you can use to make your own plan. So if you’re interested in that, head over to the show notes and we’ll have that for you there.

Emily  16:41

We’d love to hear your thoughts on writing a first day script so come join the conversation in our teacher approved Facebook group.

Heidi  16:49

That’s it for today’s episode. Head to secondstorywindow.net/ready to get your digital back to school readiness checklists. And don’t forget to get started on your first day script.

Heidi  17:00

If you’re looking for some extra support this back to school season, be sure to check out our new back to school course BTS Success, where we will happily hold your hand through the all of the processes involved in getting your school year started. You can sign up for the waitlist for that course at secondstorywindow.net/waitlist.