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6 Ways to Beat Back to School Jitters

I was recently eating lunch with a group of my closest girlfriends, who also happen to be my coworkers. We started talking about the topic that is clearly unavoidable: the beginning of the school year. Since most of us have been spending the past few weeks at the pool, on family vacations, cheering our kids on at swim meets, and the like, we found ourselves overwhelmed with all of the hard work that goes along with the beginning of each year.

It’s funny to me that as a child you can’t help but have a bit of nervousness built up about the first day of school. Each year you probably asked yourself questions like: Who will be in my class this year? What will my teacher(s) be like? I wonder what we’ll learn about. Will I have a good year? Those don’t seem too different from the questions that we were all asking each other at lunch. Teachers get jitters about the first day of school, too! Here are a few ways to prepare for and cope with the beginning of a new school year.

1. Adjust to your schedule early

Just like the children that will be coming into our classrooms this fall, it’s likely that we’ve all allowed ourselves to fall into a different regime over the summer. Instead of waking up at 6:00am and getting ready for work, I catch myself staying in bed until 8:30 each morning. If you start adjusting to your new schedule now, it won’t be so difficult once school does begin.

2. Be prepared

Start planning your first few days of school early. As much as you want to stick to a routine from the very beginning, we all know that the first day tends to throw a few curve balls at you. Plan greetings and activities that will help the children become more comfortable with you and one another, but also plan to be flexible. Have many extra activities for those first few days, just in case your new students work faster than you originally expected.

3. Welcome your students early

Make sure your classroom is in working order when your students come in for open house. When the children arrive with their parents that day, welcome them and invite them to explore their new classroom. If the children can acquaint themselves with you and their new environment for learning, they will be much more relaxed on that first day. Relaxed children equals a much more relaxed you.

4. Know their names

I always find that I’m much more at ease on the first day of school if I’ve already tried to learn my new students’ names. Take a picture of each child as he arrives at open house and take note of his or her name. Those next few days, make a point to try and learn the children’s names on your own, and that’ll make the first day much easier (I know, of course you can’t go wrong with name tags on that first day too).

5. Bring your lunch

As silly as it seems, bringing your own lunch from home can save you a lot of time on those first few days of school. You can expect the children to need your help as they go through the lunch line for that first week, and if that’s the case, your lunch break will be drastically shortened. I also enjoy bringing my own lunch so I can sit with my new kiddos and learn more about their personalities and habits. Of course the staff in the cafeteria loves an extra hand in reinforcing the cafeteria rules as well.

6. Expect to go with the flow

As much as you have planned, something will probably not go exactly as expected. Since good teachers perfect the art of flexibility, why not start on the first day? Expect that a child will forget his lunch, that you’ll be a few minutes off of your ideal schedule, or that an activity doesn’t go well. Expect it, roll it off, move on, and chalk it up to a learning experience. At the end of the day, you will have survived the dreaded first day of school and you’ll that much more prepared for the following days. Take a deep breath, and get ready to do it again the next day!

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