5 Awesome Tips for Back To School [Round-Up Post]

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Are you ready for back-to-school?  Depending on which part of the world you’re reading this from, you may already be back in action. Here in Barcelona, school and even university start on September 12th.

I have to say, Amazon’s Back to School collection has me kind of hooked, and wanting to buy everything! They have some great deals, so in addition to your normal back-to-school teacher runs, I’d suggest checking them out.  I know I’m definitely a sucker for really cool pens and school supplies my tutoring students love using.

5 Awesome Back To School Tips

Okay, so here are five great ideas you can use in your classroom. Thanks for much to all my educational blogger friends who wanted to be featured in this post. Go ahead and check out the original posts, too, by clicking on the links in each section.

1.  Flipped Back To School Night

Hot Lunch tray tells us about the Flipped Back to School Night in this post.  Basically, the idea is to send home an “intro” video about your classroom and teaching style to parents and students before asking students or parents to ask questions. There’s a great link to Darin Nakakihara’s video about how to make this work well, too.

This way, students and parents feel they know you a little before they ask questions. I love this idea! While I don’t think I have time to put it together for this year, it’s definitely something I’ll consider for next year.  Imagine being the English tutor who sends private tutoring clients an intro video? I think students and parents would love it!

2. ESL Game Ideas (Icebreakers or First Class)

English With Russie tells us about her favourite back to school games in her post! From board games to vision boards, this post has a few really cool ways you can connect with your class.

• A free board game template
• Ideas to make your vision board great
• A “mingling idea” that allows students to get to know each other by completing questions on a worksheet
• Two ideas for story-telling  (chain stories students create, and summer stories they tell)

For more game ideas, be sure to check out my post on vocabulary learning and vocabulary games.

3.  Ways To Impress Your Teacher

My friend Louisa over at LP Tutoring has a great article on ways to impress the teacher that students will love. Whether you are a teacher or a parents, it may be an article to share with students or teens.  I love how Louisa emphasizes that students should be on time, do their work, and mostly importantly “nice kids are the best”. 

I think nice people are the best. Isn’t it great when people are kind? Check out other ways to impress the teacher.

4.  Stress Reduction Techniques

Joy In Teaching has an excellent article on reducing teacher stress.  I know that the first few weeks of school are stressful, whether it’s classroom teaching, university teaching, private tutoring or group classes.  I love how Tiffany reminds us to be kind to ourselves, ask for help and develop a plan.

Check out all the awesome details here.

5.  Back To School Organization Tips

The Truthful Tutor has a great new post out on ways you can organize for back to school.  Although this post is directed towards parents, I think it’s also helpful for teachers! (Plus, I’m sure a lot of you out there are both).

Tiffany Thomas has some great ways to organize your folders, back to school items, and more in her post.

For more organization tips, check out my 6 Simple Ways To Organize post!

A Sense of Belonging In Back To School

So, I know this doesn’t truly fit into the organization category, but this post by Wild Child’s Mossy Oak Musings definitely worth mentioning. They have a freebie conversation starter activity for those of you who teach children. In this unique back to school activity, students discuss where they belong. 

There’s also an awesome Gift of Gab freebie that helps students use verbs, adjectives and adverbs as they start mini conversations every Monday morning. What a cool idea for kids!

 Motivational Quotes & Other Decor

How do you decorate your classroom?  Of course, if you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you know that I love motivational quotes!  You can head to the Motivate section of this blog for motivational quotes to use. My friend Louisa over at LP Tutoring even has a whole post on Back To School quotes you can check out!

Here are some ways to use quotes in teaching:

• Posters –  I have free ones on The Teaching Cove every Monday! Sign up for the printables library email list if you haven’t already, and you can opt-in to receive them in your inbox.

• Writing Prompts – I’ve also used the same posters above as writing prompts!  Get students to write a piece of non-fiction about the quote. What do they believe it means? How does it relate to their life? This is a great back to school activity, too.

• Story Starters –  Actually, why not have them write a piece of fiction? Use these posters as writing prompts for Writer’s Workshop classes or short ESL homework assignments

• Research Projects on the Author – Finally, if a student loves a quote, have them research the author. Finding out about an author’s life experiences can often help us understand their writing. It’s a great mini-research project, too.

Well, that’s today’s short and sweet round-up post of ideas!  Do you have any others you’d like to add to the list? Have you used motivational quotes in a different way in your classroom or tutoring sessions?

I’d love to hear from you below (I read and reply to every comment!)   🙂

Happy Teaching!

P.S.  Photography fans, the main photo for today’s post is one I took in Dublin, Ireland at the Old Library.