Works4Me is a free biweekly e-newsletter from NEA, showcasing practical classroom tips written by the readers themselves. For over 10 years NEA has been gathering great ideas from educators like you.
Here are 21 of the best back-to-school-themed teaching tips gathered over the years.
- Learning About Each Other
With this get-to-know-you activity, Ms. Herbert’s fourth-grade students practice their conversational skills, learn proper etiquette, and discover just about everything they ever wanted to know about their new teacher. - Ten Questions to Start the Year
Ms. Skid, a retired high school teacher, suggests excellent conversation starters that will engage students and elicit great responses to help the class learn more about each other. - Teacher Test
Ms. La Masa helps her students learn more about her with a pop quiz on the first day. Questions detail her personal interests, and students make guesses before she reveals the answers. - Math Autobiography
In order to learn more about her budding mathematicians, Marybeth L. asks her new students each year to write about their experiences in math classes: the good, the bad, the ugly.
- Bury
This fourth-grade teacher developed a wonderful outdoor activity for the first day of school that does just that. With a class funeral, students literally and metaphorically bury their self-doubt and plant the seeds of a positive attitude. - The Maze Team Builder
Christine begins the year with a team building puzzle, using masking tape to create a maze on the floor. Students work in teams to navigate through it as fast as possible. Read more about how she uses this activity to break the ice and build community. - School Maps
Students practice their map-making and drawing skills as they compose renderings of their surroundings and the layout of the school building. - Constructing a New School Year
Ms. Labarry approaches the new school year as if she were building a house with her students. She works with them to build a strong classroom foundation based on healthy relations in order to avoid a collapse later in the year. - Survival Kits
This survival kit for students contains useful, practical items that also hold special, metaphorical meaning. Included items are free or very inexpensive.
- Time Saving Text Book Distribution
For Ms. Kelsey, numbering her textbooks prior to the first day of class is the lynchpin for several classroom procedures: numbering and grouping students, tracking supplies, and more. - Parents’ Handbook
After years of struggling to give parents all they information they need, Ms. Neary finally discovered a good approach. Her parent handbook establishes reasonable expectations for parents and puts them at ease from day one of the school year. - Back to School Means Back to Work
High school teacher Julie Williams doesn’t waste any time calling roll or going over procedures the first day of class. Her students start working on an activity right away. - Beginning of the Year
Have you ever struggled to figure out how to decorate your bulletin boards? Ms. Berg suggests doing it at the end of the prior year, when you can get plenty of help from students
- Getting-to-Know-You Writing Project
On the first day of class, Ms. Fedderke combines a getting-to-know-you activity with a writing assignment. This quick diagnostic tools allows her to learn about her students and their writing skills. - Self-Addressed Student Letters
On the first day of school, students write a letter to themselves that will be given back at the end of the school year. - If the Shoe Fits
Ms. Kast leads her fifth-grade class in a unique shoe-sorting activity on the first day of school. It culminates in an art project that decorates her bulletin board. - New Beginnings
The third-grade students in Ms. Cirtin’s class memorize a poem by Helen Steiner Rice to help them remember important things. It sets the right tone for the rest of the year. Some of her students still remember and recite the poem as graduating seniors.
- First Day Handouts
This teacher always had trouble finding his favorite paperwork at the start of each school year, until he came up with a great idea for organizing his First Day files and minimizing bulky storage. - First Day Organization and Confidence
Even after ten years of teaching, Ms. Gray still gets nervous on the first day. She developed a way to organize typical first-day-of-school paperwork that helps her stay completely calm and lets students know she’s on top of it. - Pictures on Seating Charts II
Using pictures taken from students’ school IDs, Ms. Florence makes a seating chart that helps her — and any substitute educators who teach her class — to match faces with names and cut down on any confusion and problems.
- Bagels and Fruit
Students aren’t the only ones new to your school every year. Ms. Walton-Faria shares an idea for welcoming new teachers and helping them identify a support system, whether they’re seasoned veterans or entering their first year on the job.
