10 Tips for a Successful School Year

Back-to-school season is here! Get ready with these 10 back-to-school tips for a successful school year, including organization, attitude, planning, and equipment. Don’t forget to share your tips below!

1. Be a team player.

As teachers, we need to be flexible and help others when we can. I am not just talking about with our students, but with our fellow teachers and administrators. Learn all new staff members’ names and take a moment to welcome them. Being in a new environment or school can be stressful; you can help ease some anxiety and create relationships that only benefit a school by being united.

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Bin Shelving Units keep equipment organized, visible and accessible.

2. Organize your storage closet.

Start your year off by knowing exactly what equipment you have and where it’s stored in your storage room. Label all boxes and containers clearly, so you don’t have to rummage through them looking for something. If you need boxes or storage containers always check with your cafeteria staff. They receive crates of all sizes and sturdy boxes in their weekly shipments.

This is also a great time to take an inventory, so you know what your purchase needs are for the year and create that dream list. What’s on my dream list this year? TRX Commercial Trainer 12-Pack …I dream BIG.

Check out more inventory tips here!

3. Be prepared.

Lesson plans are your friends. Know what objective you’re going to teach and what equipment you need to accomplish that. I keep a folder on my desktop, labeled “PE Activities”, and add to it year after year. Each game or activity is a separate word document complete with everything I need to know about how to play it, including the National and/or State Standards the game provides. Having this file makes piecing my lesson plans together a breeze, simply copy and paste.

4. Vertically align your lessons and equipment used for the week.

I teach grades K-8th and want to make my day go as smoothly as possible. Transitioning from one age group to the complete opposite end can present a challenge at times. I try to use the same equipment all day long, but change the activities to fit the needs for the different levels.

For example, volleyball. Setting up the net and taking it down is not an easy task, so once it’s up we are keeping it up all day. Therefore, my lessons may look like this for the week:

  • K-2nd Clean your room
  • 3rd-5th Nukem
  • 6th-8th Volleyball skills

All of these lessons use the volleyball net, but provide a different activity that’s more age appropriate for my students.

5. Designate a space for equipment used that week.

Find an area, whether it be in your office, storage closet, or corner of your gym, to place all your equipment used for that week. This is a major saver for me! It helps to start my day off easier by having everything need for the week in one spot instead of having to hunt down various items from storage each day. At the end of the week, replace the items with the following week’s equipment.

6. Visualize and mentally walk through your weekly schedule.

Write it out and post it in several locations throughout your gym. This helps me to know at-a-glance when I need to transition equipment for a different age group and not be caught off guard. Every day of the week is a different schedule for me, so having it posted in more than one location helps me to stay on track.

7. Teach recess.

Sounds kind of silly, right? But seriously with all the easy access to technology at our fingertips, kids nowadays don’t know how to play and socially interact with one another on the playground. Teach them games they can play with no equipment. Show them what equipment is available for recess use and how to properly store the equipment after they are done. Also, explain that they need to notify someone if equipment breaks.

8. Be consistent and practice procedures.

Know what procedures you want to set in place before your students set foot in the gym. Take the extra time to practice them with your students. Don’t settle or move on until they do what’s expected. This may take extra time at the beginning of the year, but it will be worth it.

9. Study the previous year’s yearbook.

Yearbooks are a great tool to refresh your memory or familiarize yourself with your student’s names and photos. Of course, not all your same students will be returning and there will be some new faces too, so don’t spend a lot of time memorizing.

One of my favorite things in the mornings is to greet kids at the crosswalk by their name. Emotions are all over the place the first week back to school, what a comforting feeling to the families and students too that you remember them and are excited to see them.

10. Smile.

The worst advice I hear given to teachers in my opinion, is to not smile until Christmas or else they’ll walk all over you. Wrong. You can be firm and let your students know you mean business and be nice about it. Children need to know they are loved. So smile, and be their example about how they should be treating others.

Writing this post makes me so excited for my upcoming school year. We have such a wonderful gift of opportunity to make a difference in our students’ lives. Take advantage of teaching the next generation how to live a healthy and active lifestyle. Good luck to you and have an amazing school year!

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