1. Become familiar with the school site and district office facilities and resources.

Your school site and the district office media center can be valuable resources to tap into. Most school site have storage areas or closets with shared grade level curriculum resources and materials. The administrator or a veteran teacher would be the person to point you in the right direction. Depending on the size of the school district, a district library or media center will have materials available for checkout. Many districts have a new teacher orientation day to provide information about materials, procedures, insurance coverage, staff development and other key topics.

2. Set the tone for the year with detailed planning for the first day and week.

Spend an extensive amount of time on planning the first day and week of school. Make an impression and establish a positive tone for how your classroom will run. Describe in detail how you want your classroom procedures (homework, materials, line up, emergency, school/classroom rules) to work. Make sure students understand what your expectations are and why things need to be done in the manner that you describe. Particularly with the upper grades, much of the description and discussion can be done as a team-building exercise, seeking student input and comments. The primary students would also benefit from participation in setting up classroom expectations. Have a plan in mind before hand so that students can be focused to develop something that is workable and acceptable to you and has buy in from the students.

3. Develop a detailed description for student behavior expectations

The most important area to emphasize to students is that you have high expectations for their behavior. There are many models to explore, but your own personal model should blend with the school rules for pupil behavior. It needs to be a system that is fair and manageable. Don