Back to School Checklist

2011-2012
In order to provide consistency school-wide, please be sure the following items are addressed. Thanks so much!!

1. _____ See Becky to pick up your classroom key. 2. _____ If you work in your classroom between July 27 and August 9, you will need to
take your own trash to the dumpster each day when you leave.

3. _____ Do not drag furniture and belongings down hallways or across your classroom
floor. It would be a huge help if you can bring someone to help you move your furniture to the desired location in your classroom. Teachers can even help each other out with this task. If you do not have anyone to help, you can ask Steve. He may not be able to do it immediately, but he will do his best to help when time is available. 4. ______ I will be hosting the New Student Orientation on Thursday, Aug. 11 at 6:00. Be sure to lock your classroom door when you leave so parents and students do not have access to your rooms. Teachers are not required to attend this event. 5. _____ No hot glue should be used when adhering items to walls. You may use the following adhesives teachers putty / plasti-tak, Command adhesive tabs, or masking tape (Sherwin Williams works great). Some teachers report that the masking tape with a small amount of Elmers glue works very well. Also, we are not allowed to adhere anything to the red painted doors in the building. We have seen in the past that all adhesives pull the red paint off the doors. Thank you for helping us protect the walls and doors in our building! 6. _____ Be sure your fire drill map (in acrylic holder) is posted next to the light switch in your room. 7. _____ Rosters will be distributed at the end of the day on Aug. 11. These are confidential!! Do not discuss classroom placements with parents. Post a class roster outside your classroom before Meet the Teacher. Volunteers will be in the building setting up for Meet the Teacher on Aug. 15 from 8:00-12:00. Wait until after that time to post lists and put student names on desks. 8. _____ Post required items in classrooms word wall, writing rubric, editors checklist, writing process, rules/consequences, student work, and a classroom data center. Be sure to post important items near the core of instruction. Items posted should support instruction and our Quality initiative. 9. _____ At Meet the Teacher, have parents sign up if they want to volunteer to be a room parent (sign-up provided from PTA). 10. _____ At Meet the Teacher, have parents sign saying how their child will get home from school (sheet will be provided). 11. _____ Post design of your class T-shirt at Meet the Teacher. You can either post your own shirt as a sample or go to the staff drive, pull up Class T-Shirts, and display your design for Meet the Teacher. Encourage all parents to purchase a shirt for their child. Shirts will be worn on class field trips, school picnic, field day, etc. Order forms provided in student packets. This year a local orthodontist is helping with the cost of the shirts, so students and teachers only need to pay $2.00 each. 12. _____ Distribute a packet to each student in your homeroom at Meet the Teacher. Packets will be copied and delivered to your room by PTA on Aug. 4. Please see other teachers on your grade level or the office if you need additional packets. Be sure to add a welcome letter from you and a parent feedback form. If you are a 4 th or 5th grade teacher, be sure your welcome letter reflects information about both teachers in your team. Feedback forms should give parents an opportunity to tell you

information about their child special needs, goals for this year, strengths, areas for improvement, etc. If parents try to conference with you at Meet the Teacher, tell them about this form in the packet and politely ask that they put the information in writing so you will be aware. You could also set up a conference for a later day/time if needed. 13. _____ Parents were asked in the Bethel Bulletin to bring students supplies to Meet the Teacher. You can have them sort these items that night so that the first day of school will go smoothly. 14. _____ Teacher websites should be updated by Aug. 17. 15. _____ All staff members are reminded to view the required safety videos on-line. You can access these on the portal. Please have all videos and quizzes completed by Friday, August 19. 16. _____ Be prepared to receipt fees beginning the first day of school. You may need to have an activity or morning work that students can work on to allow you time to do this if you dont have a morning planning period. Becky needs all money by 11:00 am!! 17. _____ On the first day of school, send any students to the front office by 11:00 if you do not know their bus color. Please do not wait until dismissal to do this! 18. _____ All bus riders will be called to the bus area for an orientation at 1:45 on the first day of school. K5 and 1st grade teachers should be sure that all bus riders are wearing a tag every day, all year. Bus students will not return to their classrooms after the orientation. Send them with their book bags. 19. _____ We need additional K5, 1st, and 2nd grade teachers at K-2 dismissal for the first week of school. Several from each grade are asked to rotate this each day to help us until our youngest ones are used to the carline. 20. _____ During the first week of school have students help you create a class mission statement. Mission statements should be posted inside and outside your classroom by Open House (Sept. 12), and it should also be posted on your website. Ask students to sign their mission statement. 21. _____ The administrative team will conduct beginning of the year assemblies to discuss rules, expectations, dress code, etc. Assemblies will be Aug. 18 (8:30 2nd, 3rd, PMA, Poole) and Aug. 19 (8:30 K5, 1st, Irick; 9:15 4th, 5th, IMA, Sutton). All assemblies will last approx. 20-30 minutes. 22. _____ Be sure to make a positive contact with each childs parent during the first two weeks of school post cards mailed or phone calls are excellent. Phone calls give you a chance to see if parents have any questions. Be diligent about developing a positive relationship with each child and family early in the year! 23. _____ Your proposed daily schedule should be placed in Brendas box (one hard copy). Do not finalize your daily schedules until all pull-outs have been created Challenge, resource, speech, and ESOL. Once the administrative team has approved daily schedules for homeroom teachers, a copy should be printed and posted outside each teachers door and posted on your website. 24. _____ Bethels lesson plan template should be used when writing plans. Be sure to use the approved template that weve used in the past. Lesson plans should be posted on the staff drive by Aug. 22 and each week thereafter by 8:00 am each Monday. Lesson plans for the week of Aug. 17 can be hand written and placed on your desk. A copy of lesson plans should always be available on your desk throughout the year. 25. _____ Be sure to emphasize school rules and classroom procedures during the first two weeks of school. Model, practice, reinforce, praise 26. _____ Begin sending Friday folders, weekly newsletters, and weekly updates (academic and behavior) home on Friday, Aug. 19. These should go home every Friday. Newsletters should include an academic preview by subject area of the following week in addition to other important class news. Please ask parents to sign up at Meet the

Teacher to receive your weekly newsletter by email. You can send home a hard copy to everyone the first week if needed. When entering parents email addresses, enter them in the blind carbon copy field so we are not releasing email addresses to the public. This also keeps parents from being able to send unauthorized emails to your entire class. You may share email addresses with your room moms only. Be sure they enter addresses as blind carbon copy as well. 27. _____ PTA Volunteer Orientations will be held on Aug. 30 at 6:30 pm and Aug. 31 at 9:30 am in the cafeteria. Parents will also receive lunch relief training during these sessions. Encourage parents to attend one of these sessions to find out ways to get involved at Bethel. 28. _____ Teachers may begin using lunch relief volunteers the week of September 6. You can have two days of lunch relief per week. Those who do not have planning on Fridays are the only ones allowed to have lunch relief on that day. Please discuss this schedule with your grade level to be sure we have adequate coverage in the cafeteria each day. 29. _____ Each teacher / grade level should send an electronic version of your syllabus including long range plans to Julianne so she can link it to our schools website. One per grade level is fine. Have parents let you know if they need a hard copy of this. 30. _____ PTA / Open House will be held on Monday, Sept. 12. Please prepare a PowerPoint presentation to share with parents that night. Include information about academics, grading, make-up work, field trips, homework, school-wide reading program, how to help their child at home, etc. A hallway writing display should be posted by this time. Consider giving a free homework pass to those who attend. You may want to brainstorm other ideas for encouraging parents to attend.

This checklist is for your use only. You do not need to turn it in when complete. Thank you in advance for your hard work as we prepare for another great year at Bethel Elementary School!