6 Essential Tips for New Elementary Teachers

For you as a new teacher, there’s a lot to consider as you head into the start of the school year—building relationships with students, planning your curriculum, setting up the classroom. Even for returning teachers, it can be difficult to wrap your head around the most important things to focus on to start the year off right. For me, there are a few key strategies that have stood out as essential for my elementary classroom success. Here are my six tips to help new elementary teachers start strong this school year.

1. Build Relationships With Families From Day 1

My favorite way to open positive lines of communication with my families is through “First Day of School” photos. My school uses ClassDojo to communicate with families, so on the first day, I take a photo of each student holding up a “First Day of Kindergarten” sign and share each student’s photo with their family.

You can modify this based on the communication app your school uses and the specific grade you teach. Families love to see this special moment of their student’s first day and always reach out to thank me for sharing. You can also keep this going throughout the year by sharing photos from important moments in your classroom. When you give this a go, be mindful of your students’ privacy and only share individual student photos with their families.

2. Create Classroom Expectations Collaboratively

By actively engaging students in the process of defining expectations for behavior in class, you reinforce the idea that your classroom is a community and that everyone’s voice and opinion matters. Students can share ideas about how they want to be treated and how they should treat others. You can ask guiding questions to elicit some desired outcomes as well, such as the following:

• How does it make you feel if someone helps you when you’re hurt?
• What are some ways we can help our classmates?
• What are some things we could do for our classmates if we notice they are struggling with an assignment or activity?

You and your students can revisit these expectations as the year goes on to make any changes or reset when needed.

3. Save Your Favorite Resources

There is so much going on at the start of the school year, it can be easy to run through a whole bunch of activities and then completely forget about them by the next school year. To save yourself the hassle of planning all over again, create a beginning-of-the-year kit—grab a storage bin and fill it with your favorite resources.

In my kit, I put master copies of worksheets, coloring pages, and activities my students used during that first week or two of school. I also put in the books I used for read-alouds that paired with those activities. Don’t forget to laminate anything that gets reused.

4. Create an Art Display

Do you have a bulletin board outside your class that you don’t know what to do with or find overwhelming? Start by creating a Beginning of the Year display and aim to update it each month. You don’t have to be an artist yourself—all you need to do is come up with a theme and work together with students to create it . The theme could be seasonal, related to content you’re covering in class, or even support social and emotional learning goals.

When I’m running low on ideas, I utilize the Art for Kids Hub channel on YouTube for directed art projects. I do the project step-by-step alongside my students as we view the videos and pause as needed. Here are some favorites: Winter Landscape, Monarch drawing, T-Rex Valentine.

5. Incorporate Student Choice

When it comes to completing a less than preferred task, student choice can make a huge difference. By giving students an opportunity to make a decision—within the parameters of the activity—you can get them more engaged and invested in completing the task. By starting this early in the year, you help students understand that their opinion matters. There are many ways to introduce student choice in the classroom, including these:

• When students are writing: Offer different thematic writing paper (flowers during spring, snowmen in winter, etc.) and a variety of different writing utensils, like gel pens, highlighters, or markers.
• When completing math activities: Have a choice board (physical or digital) of options students can choose between during independent work time that all focus on the skill or concept they’ve been learning. This could include different paper worksheets and online learning platforms.
• When students are reading: Allow students to choose between independent or partner reading. Give students opportunities to select books of interest. In my classroom, students love the chance to read a graphic novel, so I always make sure to stock up on them.

6. Learn From the People in Your Building

When you’re a new teacher, everything can feel overwhelming, especially asking for help. But the teachers in your building are one of your best resources for learning. Ask them questions, visit their classrooms, and don’t be afraid to get feedback. This isn’t just for the start of the school year—you can find opportunities to connect with the teachers in your building throughout the year. Remember, everyone was a new teacher at some point, and in my experience, veteran teachers are happy to share what they’ve learned.