Students are about to be flooding into your classroom again. While this is exciting, it can also be overwhelming. Whether this is your first time in a classroom or you are a seasoned veteran, we hope you find these tips useful as you start this new year. Here are 5 practical steps you can take to help you feel in control in your classroom: 

#1 Take Time to Build Routines

You might feel pressured to jump into teaching right away, but it’s beneficial to take some time to teach routines the first couple of days and weeks of school. You can create routines for the first part of the class, when the bell rings at the end of class, how to get missed schoolwork, how to ask for help, what to do when they are done with their work for the day, really anything that happens on a daily/regular basis. Routines set the tone for the school year, help the classroom run more smoothly, and benefits student learning. 

#2 Set goals for personal development

Setting goals for yourself is important for your professional and personal development. Select an area in which you’d like to improve your professional ability during the coming year. Then make some practical steps for accomplishing your goal.

#3 Find a mentor or trusted colleague

We know teaching is hard, and it can be helpful to have someone else to sympathize with you and give guidance when needed. Figure out who you can turn to for advice for a difficult classroom situation or bounce ideas off of for a curriculum challenge. 

#4 Train yourself to recognize signs of human trafficking

Human trafficking can happen anywhere — and often occurs unnoticed in the classroom. By receiving training to recognize human trafficking, you can help protect your students and save them from dangerous situations. Check out our training available here.  

#5 Learn policies for both teachers and students

If this is your first year teaching somewhere, make sure you have studied policies and procedures for both you and your students. This will keep you from feeling unprepared or from misspeaking in front of your students.

We appreciate all of the hard work that you put in to educate your students. From time to time we’ll be sharing tips and guides to make your job just a little bit easier. We hope you have a wonderful year!

Learn more at dev.3rdmil.com.