Back-to-School Tips from Some of Our 2023 Educators of the Year

As teachers set up their classrooms and prepare to welcome students back to school, they often seek out and share tips and tricks for a smooth start to the year. We checked in with three of our 2023 Second Step® Educator of the Year award winners for their tips on classroom set-up and making connections in both the classroom and the staff room. Here we present their thoughtful Second Step insights.

1. What tips do you have for teachers setting up a new classroom?

Marlo Diaz-Davis: I want them to think of their classrooms as a home for the students and themselves. Questions to ask: Can the students move around without obstacles? Are materials easy to access? I also think that labeling items really helps both with a print-rich environment but also so that students know where to find materials easily.

Carrie White: Two very important spaces: an area big enough for circles and a calming corner or space. This sets the tone of the importance of circling up and that feelings matter.

2. How do you introduce your Second Step® programs, social-emotional learning (SEL) goals, and classroom norms to your new class of students?

Marlo: It’s best to start with the students and their names. Where did their name come from? Does it have a special meaning? Then, I suggest using a circle map to brainstorm what character traits make up a great student in our classroom. Then work on a classroom agreement. How will we all interact with each other?

Carrie: As a building, we have a PBIS/SEL kickoff day where classes travel throughout the building to different areas of importance to discuss our schoolwide agreements and what they look like and sound like in each of those locations. Classroom teachers/special areas/support staff also will do this with their individual classes and groups.

These are posted throughout the building, sent home to families in the PBIS handbook, and reviewed at monthly assemblies and in daily virtual morning announcements. Specifically in my class, we develop our own agreements for “Team 2” (Class Name). Our circle-up conversations discuss these for the first few days of school, and we review as needed or when issues arise. These are posted near the circle-up area.

3. What practices make the first few weeks of school enjoyable for you and your students?

Marlo: It’s all about relationships. As an SEL coach, I encourage my teachers to build connections both with their students and also to support students engaging with one another. Getting-to-know-you activities, games, conversation cards are all just a few suggestions on ways to engage.

Carrie: Predictable routines. Students learn the routine, are able to practice critical thinking skills, and quickly feel comfortable taking risks. This helps you learn about them as a person and learner, and they learn who you are as well. The unknown can be very scary for children. Even adults’ structure and routine can bring comfort and stability.

4. What activities or practices do you do to build community in the classroom?

Marlo: I suggest that all my teachers have some kind of morning meeting each day as well as a “wrap up” conversation at the end of the day. To start the day, it’s almost like a newscast. Start the day with explaining what will be the learning goals for the day. Give students time to have some kind of greeting with others and with you, the teacher.

Katie Wohlford McCracken: It’s most important to focus on relationship building in the first few weeks of school, both between the educator and students and from student to student. One way I have done this successfully in the past is to have weekly circle time to share “celebrations & concerns.” They can share with the whole class if they lost a tooth, have a new baby in the family, or on the contrary, if they have a sickness or a death in the family. Each time the class shares, you all can check in on each other’s concerns from previous weeks so that students feel very cared for by the class community. In the beginning of this practice, the shares will be more surface level, but as the weeks go on, you will see the depth will grow.

5. What works to build community among teachers and staff at your school?

Marlo: It’s really all about adult behavior. We, as the role models on a campus, need to be intentional with how we interact with other adults on campus in front of our students. If our students see that Mrs. Davis and Mrs. Jones have fun together and laugh or talk about eating lunch together, it helps them with a sense of family right there in their own school setting.

Carrie: Yates Elementary has made SEL, PBIS, and Restorative Practice a schoolwide building goal. We have created a framework that allows every staff member to be part of the work. Staff are able to choose a subcommittee that they are comfortable with and able to take ownership in the work. Our staff meetings are not just focused on announcements and curriculum but also this important work. Everyone is a key player. It’s not something you are being told to do. It’s just being done. You don’t leave your house without shoes on, right? It’s innate. SEL is seen this way at Yates. It’s innate. It’s who we are—seen through our signage, frameworks and structures, and comfortable feeling when you walk through the doors.

Katie: To build community among teachers and staff in the school, use the “people resources” in your building to do fun activities together. These can be done at staff meetings or on Fridays after school. For example, I love line dancing, so I have offered to teach a line dance. Then, whoever wants to join in can dance together. The music teacher could have everyone learn a certain rhythm on bongos. The art teacher could teach everyone how to watercolor paint your school mascot. No one likes “forced fun,” so always make it optional to set the right tone.

Our 2023 Second Step® Educator of the Year contributors

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