10 Things to Do for a New School Year

The start of a new school year is upon us! And the million-dollar question in all of us teachers’ minds is: “What can I do to get ready for the new school year?”

This fall, I’ll be starting my tenth year of teaching ESL, and I still ask myself this question. So, a few years ago, I decided to cut down on the mental struggle and just decided to make myself a checklist I could easily pull out at the start of every new year or new semester.

Here are the 10 things I do to get ready for the new school year:

1) Get your schedule

This might sound super simple, but sometimes it’s the most complicated step. First things first, try to get ahold of your school’s secretary in order to get your schedule as soon as possible. Of course, it’s nice to know things like how many hours each day you’ll be teaching, or what time your first class starts. But getting your schedule is key because you’ll need to know what subjects you’re teaching, and how many lessons you’ll need to prepare throughout the semester. For example, does that public speaking class meet once a week or three times a week? Is it an elective class, and thus, ends two weeks earlier than all your other classes? Knowing what subjects you’ll teach, and how many lessons you’ll need to prepare will give you a framework for preparing your semester.

2) Get textbooks

Every school is different in how they deal with textbooks, but in my experience, school admin often lets this slip through the cracks. Get in touch with your school about how textbooks are chosen and delivered. The school might choose all your textbooks for you, or they might have forgotten to mention that you’d be the one choosing your textbook, and you need to submit an order form for the school to order student textbooks. Do you need to pay for your own textbook, or will the school provide a copy for you? And if the school is providing a copy, will they deliver the book to you before the semester starts?

Tip: While most schools provide teachers with textbooks in China, I’ve never had any school give me a textbook in advance. Often, I get my textbook on the first day of class (or later). To avoid a messy first week of classes, I always order myself a copy of the textbook during the summer/winter break, in order to prepare beforehand.

3) Make syllabus

Now that you know your schedule and your textbook, you can start mapping out a syllabus. I never keep mine set in stone, but I like to have an idea of what each lesson topic will be. Having a bird’s eye view of the semester always helps keep me organized throughout the semester as well.

Tip: Some schools might ask you to submit this at the beginning of the semester anyway.

4) Decide on exams

Going hand-in-hand with creating a syllabus, it’s also a good idea to make some decisions about your exams. Will you have a mid-term exam? Or just a final exam? What type of final exam will it be—written or spoken? Depending on the type of exam, will you need on class period or two to complete the exam? Knowing how much time you’ll need will help you plan the rest of your lessons, and knowing the type of exam will help you make sure your students are prepared come test time.

5) Set up Notion page

I went through dozens and dozens of different ways to plan lessons. It took me years before I found Notion. Now that I’ve used it the past few years, I’ll never go back. Notion is a free website and app that I use to organize my semester’s classes, lessons, and syllabi. My favorite part is knowing I can check the status of any lesson at any time. Once I know my schedule, I go ahead and set up my Notion page for the semester to help me stay organized throughout the semester.

6) Choose PowerPoint templates

You might not use PowerPoint as much as I do, but each one of my classes relies on a PowerPoint. Once I have an idea of what topics I’ll be covering each week, I go through my collection of PowerPoint templates, and choose which PowerPoint template I’ll use for each lesson. (I use this website for free new templates: www.free-power-point-templates.com) It takes me just about 15 minutes to do this, but I’ve found it helps me when I sit down to plan a lesson from scratch. Rather than staring at a blank screen with no idea where to start, at least I have a template pulled up and ready to go.

7) Make class guide PDF

Each semester, I make a class guide to send to my students after the first day. The first day is always chaotic, and even though a lot of important information is shared the first day, I know how easy it is to forget everything that’s discussed. In addition, I never want students to feel behind in class from the first day, because they didn’t understand my basic rules and requirements. My class guide contains all the introductory information about our class including: topics that will covered, class rules, class expectations, grading criteria, how late work/absences are handled, and overall class goals for the semester. I use the website and app Canva to create a quick (and free) PDF for each class!

8) Buy new school supplies

Now for the fun part! Each semester, there are inevitably things that need to be replaced. I always buy a new notebook to write down notes about students and attendance each day in class, new markers or pens, and a new USB (since those school computers infect USBs on a regular basis). For a complete list of everything that’s in my teaching bag, you can check out this article: https://www.atlasteaching.com/relationships/whatsinmybageslteachernecessities

9) Do any school paperwork

If you can, try to get in touch with your school administration about what paperwork they’ll want you to turn in at the beginning of the semester. Each school is different, but they might want you to submit a syllabus, a written final exam with answer key, goals or expectations for the new school year, or example lesson plans. Doing all this before you enter the classroom can give you the mental space to just focus on your students once school does start.

10) Get rosters/ Print name sheets

Just like getting a schedule, I’ve found that getting rosters or student name lists can sometimes be difficult. You might have to talk to the school secretary to get these, or you might have to contact each class monitor directly. Of course, this would be helpful for calling roll or taking attendance on the first day, but getting rosters in advance is more than that. It’s nice to know how many students will be in each class, so you can plan your activities and games accordingly. It’s also nice to know information about majors or ages. For example, one year, the school told me I would be teaching freshman, but when I got the roster, I actually saw that they had made a mistake, and that class was a class of seniors! The icebreaker game I had originally planned on for freshmen definitely wouldn’t go over the same with seniors. Another year, I was told my students were sophomores, and I assumed they were English major sophomores, since I generally teach English majors. When I got the roster, I saw there were a variety of majors. Knowledge is power! Try to get as much information as you can before you step into the classroom.

Bonus Tip: Depending on what students you’ll be teaching, they may or may not have English names already. I always like to have a list of possible English names students can reference and choose from if they don’t already have an English name and have no idea what to choose.

This is the checklist I work through at the beginning of each new semester and new school year. Do these ten things, and you’ll set up both yourself and your ESL students for success!