First Day Failures and How to Function Better on Future First Days

In college I remember vividly discussing and dreaming about my first day in my classroom.  The students would come in excited for the new year and it would be a magical first day for the students and myself (their teacher).  Maybe your first day as a teacher was different but as you can probably imagine my first day was far from this!

On my first day my kindergarten students walked into a class with perfectly laid out nametags, goodies on their desks, and supplies neatly in a row.  By the end of the day I quickly came to learn that I was not just teaching but teaching actual kids and that kindergarten students don’t always know their names.  By 4:00 pm their name tags were all over the classroom or on their new friends, supplies were all over the classroom, and by the way it’s NEVER a good idea to start a school day with sugary cookies regardless how cute they are or if you found them on Pinterest.

My Advice (or what I’ve come to find after 5 tries at this):

-Sticky name tags are gold! And on backpacks (especially for the little kids)  *trust me on this I learned this the hard way with mixed up backpacks and almost students

-Have something ready to go at the desks (especially technology) it eases parents as they leave to know their kids are good hands (and in an innovative classroom) and keeps kids from crying.  *When one starts crying because they miss mom they all will start (a lesson I also learned the hard way).

-Spend your prep time getting organized not going Pinterest crazy.  The ideas are cute but make sure the function is more important than just appearance

–Use Technology!   Google drive with spreadsheets is AMAZING for getting parent info quick and you can (and will) use it later for so many reasons.  A quick SMART notebook lesson is a great way to quickly review information with parents and students and is a nice way to guide you through covering everything.  Get SMART with a notebook file for the first day instead of going in cold.

-Finally, cookies and first day goodies are great, but best saved for the end of the day!

Happy first day!