10 simple tips to avoid back to school blues

Back to school blues is a real thing, am I right? Avoid those back to school blues feeling with these 10 steps. The first week of school can be less chaotic if you have an introduction letter teacher packet. There are some

first-week must-haves

that I find helpful. We all struggle those first few weeks but let’s see if we can make it more smooth. So let’s talk about how to prepare for going back to school. 

tips for the first weeks of school

Before the first week of school do these at home:

1. Go the grocery store and get everything you need for home and the first week back
2. Get all the laundry caught up 
3. Meal prep for dinners (aff link) for the first week back to school
4. Set a tentative schedule for the week
5. Build up your immune system with  vitamins and rest (aff link)

Some of my First Week Must Haves At School:

1. Give yourself some grace
2. Write down your to-do list. Don’t think you’ll remember, because you may not.
3. Build rapport with the kids
4. Leave work at work
5. Build your immunity, more vitamins, because of germs. 

Things that help me start my year off as smooth as possible. Once I make it to the first week of school, there are some tools I consider must-haves. These tools help me organize the chaos of the beginning of the year. First I use the Meet your Case Manager sheet to introduce myself to the parents of my students. I also send home a Parent Input Sheet and a Student Information Sheet. These forms help me gain a better understanding of my students from their parent’s point-of-view.

Use Data sheets to avoid back to school blues

These are all sent home in a take-home folder I label using editable labels. Once I have read the student’s IEP’s, I fill out an IEP Snapshot form. These forms help me to better understand the student. They also make sure I am looking at the details in each IEP. Using these Snapshot sheets when I am reviewing the IEP’s with the general education teachers. I use the Snapshot Sheets in my classroom in a binder (aff link) I make for each student. These binders include work individualized leveled work that will be done working towards the student’s IEP goals. I include a sign-in log in each of the binders for the students. 

Doing these things at the beginning of the school year, makes the rest of the year run a lot more smoothly. Once I have my information and notebooks ready to go, I can work with my students and have data ready to go at a moment’s notice!