Teaching

The Back-to-School Traditions Teachers Swear By

By Hayley Hardison — August 12, 2022 1 min read
Young students running to the school building for classes.
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

The COVID-19 pandemic uprooted a myriad of school routines—for both students and educators—over the past three years. In most school districts, the first day of the 2019-20 school year looked a lot different from the first day of the 2020-21 school year.

With nearly all educators headed back to in-person schooling this fall, it’s an opportunity to return to some of those traditions—and perhaps begin some new ones.

As educators head back into classrooms, we asked them to share their traditions to kick off the school year.

“Massive quantities of coffee and doughnuts”

@TrckaTreat

“I’ll watch Mr. Holland’s Opus. Some of those scenes are so powerful.”

@teachkindling

“Having teachers ask parents to respond in writing what would make it their child’s ‘best year ever’. A simple request that often gives the teacher insights into who the child is and how to best ‘connect’ with him or her. Also starts building the teacher-parent relationship.”

@dransoff

“I love to watch Won’t You Be My Neighbor before each school year to remind me why I work with small kids.”

@mrsdelgadilloWM

“One of many, this one is a bit more work (probably best for smaller classes, ie elementary homeroom teacher) but has multiple positive effects: I set up a cheerful background and take a photo of each student with a sign indicating the start of the grade. I send the photo directly to each family so the first individual communication home about a student is positive and celebratory. At the end of the year I take the matching end of year photo and send this to families too (along with a side by side version). The kids love to see how they’ve changed over the year and it complements our end-of-year reflections as learners. 📸 ✨”

Jeane Lakin

“Start a class time capsule the first day or week and keep it to open on the last day of the school year.”

Smiling Students Lesson Plans

“Community building activities that build SEL skills and peer relationships. Also, social contracts.”

Jackie Dipzinski

Check out EdWeek’s customized back-to-school reading list for more fresh ideas, advice, and inspiration to charge into the 2022-23 school year.

Events

Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Privacy & Security Webinar
Navigating Cybersecurity: Securing District Documents and Data
Learn how K-12 districts are addressing the challenges of maintaining a secure tech environment, managing documents and data, automating critical processes, and doing it all with limited resources.
Content provided by Softdocs

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Teaching Educators Say Social Media Hurts Their Colleagues' Social Skills. Their Own? Not as Much
What educators might be missing when they say social media has a negative impact on their students and colleagues.
3 min read
Tight cropped photo of a young professional male using a smartphone which is illuminated with floating social media icons above.
iStock/Getty
Teaching Opinion An Interview With Educator and Author Jonathan Kozol
In his new book, longtime activist Jonathan Kozol dives further into school inequity and offers solutions.
6 min read
Images shows colorful speech bubbles that say "Q," "&," and "A."
iStock/Getty
Teaching Opinion 4 Ways to Present STEM Role Models Girls Will Find Inspiring
Merely exposing students to female scientists isn’t enough to get them to pursue careers in STEM.
Lisa M.P. Munoz & Eva Pietri
4 min read
Images shows a stylized artistic landscape with soothing colors.
Getty
Teaching Opinion What Teachers Can Learn From Students
Group work can help students make friends and provide a foundation for building future collaborations and relationships.
9 min read
Images shows colorful speech bubbles that say "Q," "&," and "A."
iStock/Getty