A Collection of My Favorite Back to School Posts

I realized today that I am about to start my 6th year of teaching, not counting the 6 months long-term subbing I started with. 6 years of first days, first weeks, and incredible students to get to know. 6 years of having the hardest time figuring out what to start with, what to share, how to set up my room. 6 years to figure out that every year it feels like you are brand-new and the back to school nightmares come earlier and earlier. So I went through my archives of posts as I was looking for some old ideas myself to tweak and in the process thought I should share some of my favorites from the past 3 years of blogging about back to school.

Before you even start:

How to Make the New Year Easier – Year After Year: simple solutions to make the rest of the year run smoother
Listen Up – What Teachers Wish You Knew: A post for parents as they get ready for the new year
What Will You Do the Very First Moment of the First Day of the Year- asking you to ponder what the first thing is you will do
Dear First Year Pernille – what I wish I had known the very first year
If You Have One Hour With a New Teacher – many new teachers will be coming to us for advice those first few weeks, here are some ideas to discuss with them
Administrators, Please Inspire At Back to School – we can make those days of meetings meaningful!
Some Ways to Show My Students They Matter – little ideas to start building trust and community that first week

Reading inspiration for the new year:

Classroom Setup

The Secrets of Your Classroom – What Your Setup Says About You: have you ever wondered what your classroom says about you as a person?
Some Questions to Ask Yourself As You Set Up Your Classroom

Have you thought of trying this?

How to Get Rid of Homework or at the Very Least Limit It – This could be the year you finally stop assigning homework, take the chance!
How to Do Student-Led Conferences
What is Innovation Day and Why Should You Care? My students’ favorite day of the year hands down
So You Want to Do Mystery Skype – here’s how
The Global Read Aloud – join more than 60,000 students as we read aloud a book together and connect using technology
Student Blogging – my students blog to the world, give your students a voice as well
Get Rid of Punishment and Rewards – You don’t need either to have a great classroom
Get Rid of Grades – Or limit the emphasis on them at least
Give Your Students a Voice

I am a passionate 5th grade teacher in Middleton, Wisconsin, USA, proud techy geek, and mass consumer of incredible books. Creator of the Global Read Aloud Project, Co-founder of EdCamp MadWI, and believer in all children. I have no awards or accolades except for the lightbulbs that go off in my students’ heads every day. First book “Passionate Learners – Giving Our Classroom Back to Our Students Starting Today” will be released this fall from PLPress. Follow me on Twitter @PernilleRipp.