Your SCM First-Week-Of-School Checklist

You no doubt have a packed schedule the first week of school, but classroom management must take precedence.

Far and above everything else.

Because it’s the foundation upon which effective teaching is built. It also ensures your peace and protects your students’ right to learn and enjoy school.

So I created a checklist.

The goal is to get you started on the right classroom management foot and avoid waking up one morning six weeks from now wishing you could start all over.

First-Week Checklist

1. Greet every student with a hello and eye contact.

2. Teach your classroom management plan in exacting detail.

3. Remove all gray area by modeling what does and doesn’t constitute breaking your rules.

4. Promise to follow through 100% of the time.

5. Teach, model, and practice your core routines.

6. Teach, model, and practice how to transition.

7. Teach, model, and practice your “attention” signal.

8. Teach, model, and practice how to sit, listen, and ask a question.

9. Be consistently pleasant.

10. Calmly enforce a consequence for every rule broken.

11. Bring a spirit of fun and humor to each day.

12. Breathe, pause often, and take your time.

Together, the items above will build a culture that will guarantee a happy and successful year for you and your students.

But you must never get lazy. You must never become complacent. You must never weaken or waver.

The first week is only a start. Check the twelve items off if you wish, but their excellence must remain your priority until the last minute of the last day of school.

The good news is that they’re simple. Anyone can do them. If you need extra motivation or a deeper understanding of each, click on the embedded links.

And if you’ve already started school, and are in your third week, for example, go back and recommit to them now. Set everything else aside until your students have proven they understand and are able to perform these core skills and expectations.

They’re counting on you, after all, to be a great teacher. They’re so far behind. They’ve lost so much. Their future is at stake.

Are you going to be the one person they need right now more than ever or yet another mediocre teacher that will only set them even farther behind?

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