It took me many years to realize that’s it’s okay to start the school year with what feels like an incomplete classroom space. The classroom will grow with you and your students and evolve into what it needs to be.

Take the time in the summer to organize spaces that you will store materials in, so they are easily found and accessible when you need them later. Do a tentative sketch of how you’d like your space laid out and begin to move furniture into those spaces. Don’t sweat bulletin boards, walls, or other display areas, wait to fill those with your students and make the space yours.

Also remember, just because you see it online and it looks magazine ready, doesn’t mean that space will work for YOU and YOUR students. Your students should be reflected in your space.

I have learned that you should put up posters that reflect the learning as the school year progresses. I do agree that you have to make your classroom reflect the needs of the students. Just make sure that your students feel welcomed as they come into your classroom by having their names on birthday charts, desks and even the door to the classroom.

I teach small group reading intervention .. so creating a welcoming space outside of my classroom is an important way to get kids excited to enter!

Don’t overthink. If you are thinking of making changes, make one significant one. Research to see if others have tried it before trying it yourself. Plan it out and that includes mitigating any possible consequence, get what you need to execute it. The main thing is to not to make too many changes at once. Dedicate yourself to one change.

The beginning of the year is the most stressful time of the entire school year. Even after 23 years, I still get butterflies about starting over because it is the nature of our work.
As a new teacher, I wish someone had told me this piece of advice sooner. "Just make sure you know how they're getting home on the first day."
Sounds simple and silly, but in the end, name tags will be changes, posters put up and taken down, you'll change your mind about decorations and seating charts. So it's never completely possible to take all of the stress away from the beginnng of the year and it's okay to allow yourself to not be completely ready day one. Just make sure you know how they're getting home at the end of the day and the rest will happen!

I would think about ways you’re going to build relationships with students and how to weave in your expectations and procedures throughout the first couple of weeks. The classroom set up is important as far as furniture goes, but as shared, your classroom will grow with your students. Find someone who you can plan with, even if that person isn’t on your team. And remember to breathe. You’re going to be great!