Brain Waves Instruction Looks Ahead

I'm super excited to be linking up with some awesome middle and high school teacher-authors on TpT to share ideas with you about how I like to look ahead to the next school year.  

You'll find some of my favorite tips for planning for a new school year below, but make sure to stop by the other sweet blogs and find lots of other great ideas for back to school, too!

First things first...

I think Aesop said it best in his fable "Ant and Grasshopper"...prepare today for tomorrow's needs.  So, instead of packing it all up at the end of the school year, I try to check off as many of the tasks on my Back to School Checklist as possible.  (If you'd like a copy, I've prepared a FREE Back to School Resource for you HERE.)

I even like to plan for the first day of school on my last day of school.  During the last days of school, I put together some writing prompts and lesson extension activities for the first day of school in September.  I like to copy them all NOW and then get busy enjoying my summer!  (Yes, they're FREE for you HERE, as well.)

Oh, and I even like to plan for some beginning of the year classroom decoration during the last weeks of school.  My favorite way to decorate a bulletin board for a new school year is with words of wisdom or motivational posters designed by students from the last school year.  It's sort of like killing two birds with one stone.  In June (at the end of the school year) I have current students complete an End of the Year Reflection (FREE HERE).  In this reflection they create quote posters.  At the end of the lesson I reserve my favorite posters and when it's time to decorate the classroom for the next school year, I just pull out those awesome posters and POW! a bulletin board is done!

Speaking of the next school year...

I'm bringing centers back big time in the middle school classroom.  Kids love them and so do I!

I'm in love with other fun interactive ways to get students actively engaged in their learning, too.  Whether it's with simple pencil flags to help with annotating texts...

or reading dice to get students motivated to read aloud (find them for FREE HERE)...

or interactive reading notebooks or folders...I love the idea of students actively learning in the classroom.  So looking ahead, it's all about interactive learning!

Point of View Centers

Sequencing Centers

Learning Take Out - Finding the Theme, Figurative Language, Finding the Main Idea

Close Reading

Interactive File Folders

I have a feeling that with a little work and planning now...it's going to be a great September!

Find the free set of Back to School Checklists and Activities HERE.

Thanks for stopping by!

 

An InLinkz Link-up