Back to School for the Social Studies Classroom

 Know the 3 ironclad techniques to improve back to school

After soaking up some much-needed sun and relaxation, now it’s time to plan for such an exciting time: Back to School!📓📚 I’m hoping your district will have more normalcy back this year than the craziness that transpired the past 2 years. However, even if it doesn't, there are a few aspects to focus on as the first day approaches. The 3 strategies below will help ensure the next school year starts with positivity, engagement, and organization!💓😀👍

Why You Should Get to Know Students starting on the First Day of School

To help make sure you have a good year, it’s so important to get to know your students! When positive relationships are developed, everyone is happier to be in the classroom. Also, students are often more driven to complete work when they know the teacher truly cares. To accomplish this during the first week of school, spend some time incorporating get-to-know-you activities into the lesson. Now, I know it’s hard to think about doing this when your year is jam-packed with content that you HAVE to get through. However, building relationships creates a positive classroom atmosphere and makes classroom management easier on you.

 As one additional tip, let your students get to know you! Share some important things in your life, such as your favorite place to visit 🗽, hobbies 🎳, and anything about your family 👶. Students want to get to know us just as much as we want to get to know them! 

How you should get to know your students 

There are so many icebreakers available you could use to get to know students! For example, this If I Were a Country resource is a perfect way to truly get to know your junior high students. Even better, all of the information is related to social studies content! Students will be able to tell the teacher and class all about their Independence Day (birthday) 🎂, favorite climate, and agriculture (food) 🌮. Students can also create their own flag 🚩 and timeline 📅of their life. This resource is chock full of creative ways to use social studies terms while getting to know your new class.

Preparing Sub Plans

No matter how prepared teachers can be, life happens! You never know when a sick day will pop up, and sub plans are rarely easy to come up with. To help keep life calm during a chaotic time, it’s vital to have sub plans in order. It’s best to do this at the start of the year to guarantee a lesson is ready whenever something comes up last minute.

 One incredible FREE resource for the social studies classroom is 10 Supreme Court Cases Every Teen Should Know. Here, there are high-interest cases and articles from the New York Times. Additionally, there are lesson procedures, multiple graphic organizers, and answer keys ready to go. This way, teachers can print these packets at the start of the year and have everything ready to ensure students are still learning when there is a substitute.

Content Review

Summer learning loss is real! After a tumultuous year, content review for any subject is essential  at the beginning of the year. With any luck, students will quickly get back into the swing of things and be able to recall previously learned content.

 To make review exciting, a content “boot camp” is a creative route to take. For example, this Social Studies Skills Bootcamp provides a foundational review for 17 topics, including state identification 🗺 and geographic land features 🗻. Furthermore, there is also a review on latitude and longitude, landmarks 🗽, and presidential trivia. Students will have a blast reviewing in this exciting boot camp format!

 

Back-to-school is such an exciting, emotional, stressful time. There is always a sadness leaving summer but excitement to be back in the classroom. However, it can be emotional and stressful to get everything prepared for students before the first day comes. Therefore, these 4 strategies will help ensure all students and teachers have the best start to the school year!

 

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