How to Start Your Day @ School: Back 2 School Series

Welcome back for another week of fun Back 2 School posts!

I'm living all things back to school currently, so I thought my posts should reflect that. 

Today is the big solar eclipse day!

I think we are the ONLY district in the county and surrounding counties who is back in school.

I know some other schools in other states took this day off. 

While we won't see the full eclipse, we will see some of it. 

Our plan for the day is to take the kids outside to see it on paper plates. 

Unfortunately, we don't have glasses, so we will do the paper plate trick. 

I'm a bit nervous about some of our daring teenagers who will want to seem like hero's and will LOOK at the sun!!

In addition, we will see the eclipse around the time that our students are going home. 

I've very nervous that kids on the bus won't look at the sun, especially the younger ones. 

So here's to hoping it's a good and safe day!

Today I'm talking about How I Start My Day at School!

I believe that how you start things has a great affect on how they turn out. 

I never think you can be too early for anything, so I arrive to school an hour and a half before we have to be there. 

I love this time so much because I get SO much done and people aren't bothering me. 

One of the first things I do when I get in my classroom is turn on my computer and get all of my tabs open. 

I frequently have around 10 tabs open. 

I check my email and reply if needed. 

Then, I pull up that documents that I need for that day.

Next, I change the standard (s) that we're working on, write out the daily goal and post I Cans that are related to what we're working on. 

Then, I write out what the students need for class. 

They are trained to look at the board to see if they need anything besides their binder, paper, pencils and book. 

When they come in and see something written up there they know they are expected to get whatever it is before the bell rings. 

After that I write some more. 

Sometimes I might need them to actually do something, so I write that in the middle of the board and tell them to look at the board and do what I've asked when they are coming in the door.

From there I fill out the agenda and homework sections on the back board. 

The agenda is what I hope we cover that day in class and under homework is what they need to do that night or on upcoming nights for homework.

I then set out any papers that I will need to pass out. 

On this particular day we were working on argumentative essays. 

Each class was doing a different topic, so each class needed a different paper.

And there you have it. 

It really takes a lot of preparation and time to get my classroom ready. 

I am not one of those teachers who can walk in five minutes ahead of time and be ready. 

I wish I was one of those people, but I'm just not and that's okay. 

If you're a teacher, how do you start your day?

Do you have rituals or is it different every day?