4 Things I Always Do During My Classroom Prep

The back to school season can be so busy. Here are four things that either make my life easier or make my students feel connected to our room. I make sure I do these four tasks every August when I’m working on my classroom prep no matter what grade I teach or where my district is located. They will make your back to school season run smoothly and jumpstart building your classroom community!

Whenever I switch grades, I always print out a school photo of myself at my students’ age and post it outside my room. I first saw this idea from Bethany Barr & Amber from A Smiling Teacher a few years ago and I’ve been doing it ever since! I hang the poster outside my door and every year my students and my coworkers comment about how much they love seeing my old photo. It’s a fun way to make an immediate connection with your students before they even walk through your door!

You can get an editable version of the poster inside my free library! Just type your name and year and add a photo of yourself!

Another task I always do no matter what classroom I’m in is to set up an affirmation station. An affirmation station is an area where there is a mirror surrounded by empowering phrases for your students to read. When they look in the mirror as they wash their hands, get a pencil, line up at the door, etc. they are able to read the powerful words about themselves!

It only takes a few minutes to tape these cards to a mirror while you’re working on your classroom prep and it leaves a big impact with your students! You can use as many or as few of the affirmation cards as you want. They are a wonderful model for positive self-talk and an ideal compliment to social emotional learning.

My classroom prep checklist is not complete without my class list sticky notes! These lists are so simple but make my life so much easier, especially during the first few weeks of school.

These are editable templates where you can type in your students’ names to create a checklist. These class list post it notes are helpful when you’re collecting hard copies of assignments or forms. This checklist class list system has made me so much more organized!

Stick a class list note to the top of a pile of papers that has been turned in to keep track of who still needs to turn something in. Check off student names from the list as you receive them. Then you will know quickly who is missing forms! This is incredibly helpful at the beginning of the year when a lot of forms are going home. I prep these during my classroom prep period so I don’t have to think about them later!

These editable sticky notes are one of my bestsellers every year. The ease of sticking a Post It note on a stack of papers to check names off is unmatched! I’ve tried the same system with checklists printed on regular paper attached with a paperclip, but I frequently lost the checklist! You can grab the editable template below.

This next classroom prep task takes more time, but it has a significant payoff: prep an emergency substitute binder. Even if your school doesn’t require you to have an emergency sub binder, this will save you in the long run!

Almost every teacher will have at least one unplanned absence in the school year, whether it’s a sick child, a family emergency, or something else. The last thing you want to do in that situation is spend an hour writing out lesson plans when you’re needed elsewhere or you’re sick in bed.

Spend some of your classroom prep time creating an emergency sub binder. Include your typical routines and procedures, a schedule for each day, class list with photos, lunch and recess procedures, etc. You never know when you will be absent, so it will be a huge relief to know that any information a substitute could need is all in one place! You can find out how I make my binder in this blog post.

The binder will tell the substitute teacher where to find the teacher manuals, where supplies are kept, which students are good helpers and which need academic support. Not every sub will read the whole binder, but if something comes up while they are your sub, they can look for the answer in the binder!

I include lesson plans for each subject area inside the binder. I’ll switch them out each quarter as my students progress. If I’m required to ask the substitute to teach the lesson I would normally teach that day, I’ll include all of our typical routines and procedures for each subject area and email in the necessary page numbers, book titles, etc. that the sub will need for that day. Even if I do that, it takes significantly less time than typing up a full day’s worth of plans.

Here’s a bonus task that I do in every classroom and every grade, but this one has to wait until the first day of school! Save this for after your classroom prep is done 🙂

Take a photo of each student pointing in one direction. Remove the background of the photo, cut out each student and laminate them. Then place their pictures in important places around the classroom! I put the photos in places like the affirmation station, student supplies, the daily schedule, etc.

For example, I’ll place one student’s photo (we’ll call them Lilly) on our ‘turn-in bin’ and when I remind students where to turn in their papers, I’ll say ‘turn your papers in to Lilly’s bin!’ It helps your students feel connected to the space and gives them a sense of ownership in the classroom. You can read more about how to do this in this blog post or if you prefer a video format, check out this Instagram reel!

I hope these classroom prep tasks make your teacher life easier!