Teacher Survival Toolkit: Essential Resources for the New School Year

It’s the most exciting time of the year, it’s the most overwhelming time of the year.

Back-to-school season may make you think of buying a new backpack and wandering the school supply aisles at your local store, but for teachers, it’s so much more. There are posters to hang and shelves to dust, copies to make and student names to learn. And whether you’re a first-year or 15-year teacher, it can all feel a little chaotic. 

That’s why we’ve assembled a teacher survival toolkit to ring in the new year. Comprised of our five favorite tools developed for the Year One podcast ,this toolkit includes ready-to-use resources for rookies and veterans alike. 

Our 5 favorite tools for teachers

Here’s a look at the five resources we’ve included to help you survive the start of the school year:

1. Time-Saving ChatGPT Prompts- Leverage technology to streamline time-consuming tasks with these ChatGPT prompts for educators. Whether you need to create lesson plans or generate seating charts, you’ll find a prompt to help make your to-do list disappear.
   
   
2. Teaching the Whole Student Checklist—Based on ASCD’s Whole Child framework, this checklist offers easy-to-implement strategies to promote health, safety, engagement, support, and academic challenge. Think of it as your “easy button” for achieving your student learning objectives this year!
   
   
3. Icebreakers- Start out your year right with these back-to-school icebreakers to get students talking! Check out these fun activities for math, ELA, and world language students of all ages.
   
   
4. Student-Led Conference (SLC) Template- While you may have some time before parent-teacher conferences, everyone knows they require a lot of preparation. Download these student-led conference templates to empower students to take ownership of their learning—and save yourself some work during conference season!
   
   
5. Parent/Guardian Email Templates- Get a head start on communications to your students' grown-ups with these helpful email templates, available in both English and Spanish. Whether you’re putting out a call for classroom volunteers or following up about a behavioral issue, these will help make time to tackle that pile of grading—or grab another coffee from the lounge.

Where can I find more resources?

Looking for other great tools for teachers? Check out the classroom resources developed for each episode of our Year One podcast, which followed first-year teacher Jenna MacNulty as she navigated the highs and lows of year one in the classroom.

Whether you’re looking for budgeting tips, a guide to understanding observation feedback, or an IEP pocket guide, you’re sure to love our catalog of downloadables created for teachers by teachers.

So break out the new sticker sheets and test those new Expo markers—it’s time to dive into a whole new school year!