We asked first-year teachers in our Fearless Teachers Facebook groups to ask their burning first-year teacher questions and some seasoned teachers gave us their answers… question #3 is always one that I get asked. ?
There is a first time for everything, but sometimes we forget what it was like doing what we do every day — for the very first time.
The first day of school focuses on the students. It’s their first day in this classroom. Their first day in this grade and their first day with these classmates. For some, it’s the first time they put their new sneakers on their feet and the first time they have this new backpack on their back — it might even be the very first time they’ve been to this school.
However, on the first day sometimes we forget it’s not just the first day for students. It’s the first day for teachers too.
This is the first time we’ve had this group of students sitting in front of us or maybe even the first time we’ve taught this grade. We don’t always think about the new teachers, and how this may be the first time they’ve had 30 pairs of eyes staring up at them. Or maybe, it’s the first time they have stepped into a classroom in person and not behind a screen.
What we often forget on that first day of school is that teachers are human too, and they deserve a chance to raise their hands and ask questions — just like their students do.
Teacher Question 1 – “What type of centers/stations should I prepare?” -Kayla J.
- “Hands-on, review work kids can do independently. Make sure to make it meaningful and engaging” – Jessica D.
- “I do daily 5. They can do it independently and you can pull groups.” – Faye J.
- “Keep it easy enough to sustain all year and so you really only have to teach them once: read on your own, read with a buddy, listening center (if you have one – or you can swap this out for another sight word or phonics activity), technology” -Julie R.
- “Teacher table, word work, technology, writing center. Word work can be anything from magnetic letters to spell sight words to mystery houses which my kids love. I found it on TPT and it’s editable. It’s scenes from a house with the sight words you plugged in hidden around the picture in tiny font. They use magnifying glasses to find the word and write them on a dry erase board. Also for the word work center, you can do rhyming, syllables, letter puzzles, etc until you work your way up to CVC words and stuff like that. You could eventually open a 5th center for word work and call the other one your sight word center.” – Jennifer H.
- “Keep it simple. I do computer, independent reading, writing in a journal, and small groups with me.” – Amanda A.
- “I have a math cart and a reading cart (they are in different areas so kids know which is which). They also have R and M on each drawer label. I use spelling patterns/spelling words and sight words for the week as words they use during stations.” – Amy G.
- “M.A.T.H.: M– Meet the teacher. A – At your seat, T – Technology, H – Hands-on. I kinda kept the same theme with Phonics just didn’t have a cool little acronym.” – Tara A.
- “Read to Self, Read to Someone, Listening station, Work Work, and Technology. Those were my Daily 5 and I would pull my groups from those rotations. I would like to incorporate a STEAM component this year if I could” – April L.
2 – “How do I make the most of guided reading with only 30 minutes of time?” – Richa H.
- “The biggest thing is going to be data, knowing your kids’ levels in reading and phonics and comprehension needs. Then plan based on that. I tend to focus on phonics more for my lowest kids and comprehension for my higher.” – Julie H.
- Take a look at how to set up your Guided Reading groups here.
Teacher Question 3 – “How long do you spend teaching routines and such at the beginning of the year before diving into the content? Does anyone have a master list of routines they teach at the beginning of the year?” – Michelle J.
- “I will teach this ALL YEAR LONG. But, that being said, I usually need to spend about 2 weeks on regular procedures and get settled for 3/4 weeks before adding in procedures for stations and guided reading.” – Jessica D.
- “[For first grade] Lots of review of the skills they learned from Kindergarten.” – Jill K.
- “Depending on the group, it can take up to 6 weeks.” – Cathy K.
- “Right but like how many days do you spend solely on teaching routines? Obviously, you can’t just teach routines for 6 weeks. When I taught 3rd grade we did 2 days of routines before starting content, but I feel like 2 days isn’t long enough for 1st graders.” – Michelle J.
- “You incorporate it into lessons. I never teach “just routines”. I usually start with Social Studies pretty quickly and move on from there. Hope that helps” – Cathy K.
- “2 weeks for classroom rules/routines. Centers I do not start until October.” – Katie Spencer
- “I spend about six weeks…but after the first two days, we are working and learning procedures. One of our read alouds is Harold B Wigglebottom, we discuss what lessons he learns and how they apply in our classroom. We also sequence the story. We learn a math game to practice math fact fluency, then we learn the procedures for playing partner games. So you can teach academics and procedures together; the academic material is review or lightweight but you can do both together.” – Anita P.
4 – “Interactive notebooks. Does the teacher put in the pages/activities for the students to complete or do the students cut and glue then complete the pages?” – Lindsey J.
- “Yes to pre-cutting and modeling!!” – Michael S.
- “I LOVE interactive notebooks. To be fair it does take a few weeks for the students to do really well with them. I also model at the beginning good cutting techniques a lot. I do not precut any of it. It helps that I was recommended a really good TPT product. The one I use has it set up so the students cut only dotted lines and solid lines are never cut just occasionally folded. I drill this for my students. It helps a lot. In the beginning, I also modeled how to put it in the notebook, step by step for the students. After doing this daily for a couple of weeks I got to the point I only went over the content and it didn’t take more than 15 minutes for my students to complete.” – Susan T.
5 – “What’s your “first-day” schedule look like for first grade?” – Macey J.
- “I do some getting to know each other activities, with the majority of the day being teach-tos and demonstrating and practicing classroom expectations. I break these up with read alouds like jitter juice (I also make the juice for us to drink)” -Babs A.
- “The first day is routine heavy. After students have already come in and are sitting down, eating, etc. go over what it will look like when they come in every morning. Have the students physically get up and do it with you. I go over any morning work and we do one right then to practice. I take time before lunch to practice lining up how I want them to do it. We practice going down the hall (before we actually have to for specials, lunch, recess, etc.) We review recess rules. I physically take them to the playground. I make sure this is done before the first recess. If you will be sitting on the floor/carpet I have the students practice the transition and then usually do a read-aloud. We do a lot of interactive notebooks all year in my class so I do one the first day. I also of course fit it in a fun first day of school craft. At the end of the day, we go over dismissal and what that routine looks like. Plan for extra time because you need time to teach it and students to do it” – Susan T.
Teacher Question 6 – “What are the essentials I should purchase for my classroom?” – Kim W.
- “Rewards! Classroom incentives are definitely my friend. If you have a Party City where you’re located, they give teacher discounts. I also hit up “day after” sales. For organization, I also have a rolling cart with drawers labeled with the days of the week. I make sure that I have all of my activities ready for the week. So I can just go and grab it out of the drawer.” – Tiffany L.
- “Make sure you know what kinds of things are going to be in your classroom already so that you don’t buy duplicates of things. Definitely buy a good pencil sharpener, an organizational cart (I use mine for my lesson plans/copies for each day), and plenty of expo markers!” -Katy W.
- “Sleep all you can before you start.” – Norene H.
7 – “I have so many questions I’m teaching kindergarten…” – Savannah L.
- “Have a positive attitude and that will go such a long way with the little ones. Kindergartners are the best people to make mistakes around! One of my classroom expectations “be prepared to make mistakes and learn from them” – Libby W.
- “Start with your grade level team. They will be glad to help. We all felt overwhelmed the first year. You’ve got this.” – Anitta P.
- “Excel spreadsheets are your lifeline” – Dan W.
- “Start out organized from the beginning to save you so much time each day! Remember to take time for YOU and relax!” -Dalene G.
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Written by – Korryna Sanchez
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