Nine Back-to-School Ideas for Middle School Teachers

Heading back to school after the summer is exciting!  There are so many fresh ideas to try and ways to recharge your classroom and teaching.

The Middle School Mob has pulled together nine of our favorite back-to-school hacks, tips, and tricks.  We hope you'll find a few here that will get your year off to a great start!

Getting organized 

Michele of Michele Luck's Social Studies says that this is a must for new teachers. This bundle includes everything to get the year started and to keep it moving in the right direction! It walks you through classroom organization and helps you be prepared for dealing with classroom management, teacher evaluations, lesson planning, and more!

Do you need a seating chart?

Classroom organization is one of the first things that come to mind at back to school time. Desk or seating chart arrangement, along with ideas and planning for behavior management are priorities. A good seating chart template can be the saving grace for the middle or high school classroom.

Michele of Michele Luck's Social Studies shares some ideas about how to best use a seating chart.

Creative mini books

Lisa from Mrs. Spangler in the Middle says, "As a middle school teacher, I have to make 130 copies any time I need all of my students to have something. So if my syllabus is a couple of pages, that really adds up and I only get 2 cases of paper per year!

"This mini-book is just ONE sheet of paper for each student! And it gives the students something to do with the syllabus instead of just pretend to read it. ;) Not to mention it's creative and gives off a warm, fuzzy feel. :) "It's also completely editable so you can pre-print all the information from your syllabus on it or have students record the important information on it. Finally, it comes with a video to show you and your students how to assemble it."

You can find her paper-saving mini book here.

Poetry anyone?

Sharon from Classroom in the Middle says, "Poems make great short readings for the first days of school, and poems about school are a classic choice for beginning of the year activities in language arts classes. Here is a list of ten good titles, as well as a few links where you can find even more. The poems range from funny to serious. Some are about school and others are about perennial middle school topics."

Create an Escape!

Looking for a novel way to keep students thinking? Lyndsey from Lit with Lyns describes how she uses a digital escape room to engage her students at the start of the school year.

Are you going digital?

If so, Shana from Hello, Teacher Lady has some great tips for you.

Shana says, "Google Classroom has been the organizational hub of my classroom for the past few years, and I'm on a mission to share the love with as many teachers as possible. Since we're in the midst of back to school season, there's no better time to start saving time, paper, and sanity. If you've been wondering about the benefits of using Google Classroom, I've rounded up the top 12 reasons why Google Classroom should be your new BFF."

Flipping for this flipbook

Stephanie from The Marvelous Middle has a great idea for helping students keep track of their syllabus.

"The school year starts off smoothly with detailed classroom policies and procedures. A classroom syllabus explains how my classroom runs and the curriculum covered during the school year," Stephanie says.

"But, my students always seemed to lose this syllabus a few weeks into the school year. This flipbook syllabus solved this problem because it is sized to be glued right inside an interactive notebook. My students no longer lose this important information. It is always at their fingertips."

Building routines with task cards

Susie from Anchored in Reading shares this idea for how to use task cards to create routines in the classroom:

"This back to school resource proves valuable in many ways. Used as a bell ringer, these task cards help you build a routine while starting each class with students on-task and working. In addition, some of the concepts are review which may be beneficial for our students getting back into the swing of things! You could also use these task cards as exit slips or informal assessment."

Creating a yearlong plan

Marypat from Just Add Students shares this blog post with ideas of how to set up, create and use a yearlong plan for your ELA standards.

She says, "A yearlong plan will help you teach (all the) writing; it will save you time and energy — and help you remain accountable for what you’re expected to teach this year. When Sunday night rolls around and you're planning your week, a ylp is a lifesaver!  The lessons plans practically write themselves!  An additional bonus?  Great for Meet the Teacher night as well!"   You can find her free editable yearlong plans here.

So, what do you think?  What new ideas are you implementing this year?  Let us know in the comments below!

Here's to a fresh, new school year!

Flexible Seating in Middle School

Hi everyone, its Julia from History from the Middle and I'm going to share with you how I do Flexible Seating in my class--YES, my middle school class!  It works!!  I'm going to share with you how I have set up my class, how I share it with my students, and some images of what it looks like in my class!

I start with flexible seating on day 1...Which was actually today!  I first label each of my seats with a table number and a seat number.  I print these out on sticker sheets and place on each desk and then I also print the seat labels on paper to make "seat cards".  These are what I actually use to randomly assign seats at the beginning of the year.

So, on day 1, I lined my students up outside my class, briefly explained that our class has flexible seating, and we would discuss what that is over the next few days, but that today they would just be randomly assigned a seat.  I started with my floor seats first and asked who wanted to sit there, and then randomly handed out the other cards for my other seats.

I have the following options in my class:  Floor seating with stadium seats and an Ikea Coffee Table, 3 low tables with Ikea Stools, 1 lower table with crate seats, multiple desks and chair and then 1 table with Ikea Rolling Chairs.  I am planning on upgrading one of my stool tables with the ALL popular Kore Wobble Stools!  They are a bit pricey, but I think my students will really enjoy having them as one of our choices!  All are part of my flexible seating with the exception of my table with my Ikea Rolling Chairs I'm using as a VIP table this year!  Here is an interesting blog post on VIP Tables!

Ikea Coffee Table with Stadium Seating (I store the seats on the shelf under the table)

Low tables with Ikea stools

Low table with crate seats

Regular desks and chairs

Table with Ikea Rolling Chairs (VIP Table)

I also have two areas in the back of my room that I open up for independent activity time.  One area is my classroom library with 4 bean bags (that I got for a GREAT deal from Craigslist!), the other is an area with some more crate seats and 2 small Ikea Tables.  

Library area with bean bags

Crate seat area with Ikea Side Tables

After day 1 of introducing, I then go into the details of how Flexible Seating will work in our class.  Click HERE to see my Power Point on Flexible Seating that I share with my students!  On the last page of the presentation, I have hyperlinked for your a Google Forms survey that I created to survey the kids on what seating style they like best!  Feel free to copy to your Google Drive and us!  Also, if you're looking for some pre made rules and posters, check these out from Buckeye Teacher!

 Each day, I switch up the seating cards before they come in so they have the opportunity to sit in a different seat.  Once I feel they are comfortable with the seats AND knowledgeable of my rules and expectations with the seats, I then allow them to freely choose.  I initially have them choose a Home Seat which will then be written on a seating chart.  They know that when there is a sub, they will sit in that Home Seat so the sub is able to follow with a seating charts.  

When I first entered the "unchartered waters" of Flexible Seating, I was worried about it not working and not being able to manage it.  I can tell you through reading many other blog posts and just seeing what worked in my own class with my students, I've seen great success!  In fact, it is has now spread to several other classrooms at my school! 

I'd love to hear from other teachers that have either tried ir or are thinking about trying it...Please share below!