Back to School: Items to have ready for the first day!

Every year there are certain items that need to be ready for the first few days of school. For those teachers who have to send their copies away, it is especially important to be organized. The rest of us can procrastinate a bit more, but I prefer to avoid the copier crunch and start the year prepared. Here are the items that I want to have ready prior to the first day of school.

1) Course plan or overview for the year
2) Detailed lesson plans for the first month (brand new teachers might have to start with the first two weeks until class pacing becomes obvious)
3) Ice breaker activities for the first few days
4) Parent letters or parent presentation for the "meet the teacher" night
5) Class expectations policies, and philosophy handout
6) Requisite class materials list
7) Newspaper or internet articles about learning foreign languages
8) Classroom decor finished and hanging
9) Projects, tests, and quizzes that will be done in the first month
10) Class website (my school requires that all teachers use an in-house website. This year, the school is trying a new platform called Haiku!) I am excited to try it out and see how I can use it to make learning more effective in my class.

What items have I forgotten? What else needs to be done before students walk through the doors of the classroom?

In my next blog, I will discuss the items that I put in my meet the parent night presentation.