The Inside Lane

Welcome to the Inside Lane Back to School Special!

Can you believe it’s almost that time of year again? I’m personally looking forward to getting back to work and getting to know my new class, although I will be looking forward to the October mid-term before long! In preparation for the year ahead I’ve put together this post to round up some resources and sites that could come in useful when preparing to go back to school. I have focussed on primary level as is my wont, but I’m sure some of what you read below could well be applied at other levels too. I’ve been putting this post together over the course of two weeks so if any of the links below are broken by the time of publishing I apologise. Also, not all of the resources are free, but none of them are mine!

Classroom Management And Layout

Class Dojo is a great tool to help with class management and student rewards.
Take a look at these free themes for your classroom.
The Organized Classroom Blog has some really good tips and resources to help you organise your room.
Take a look at these Classroom Desk Arrangement ideas.
You could make some inspirational posters using these images.
What about creating a nice positive learning space in your classroom like Damien of Seomra Ranga did last year?
Instant Display sell display resources which could be useful.
You might get some ideas for interesting classroom displays on Twinkl or Teacher’s Pet.
@simcloughlin has been publishing some of his research based on classroom displays, and asks are displays just wallpaper or a learning resource?
Here are some tips from Jim Russell on classroom rule making.
Angela Watson, an education consultant in NYC shares her ideas on classroom arrangement.

Planning

The NCCA planning tool is very useful for termly or fortnightly planning.
The Folens Yearbook mentioned below has useful sections for planning.
I have never seen what these are like, but Rainbow Education have fortnightly, monthly and yearly planning material available to order.
Check out Simon’s computerised Cúntas Míosúil on Anseo.net.
For thematic planning throughout the year try Mash.ie. Sign up, share your resources and help build the library of relevant, themed resources for all to use.

Resources

Are you on Twitter?

If you’re not already using Twitter then I can only recommend that you immediately sign up and start following some fellow educators. For me, Twitter has revolutionised the way I find and share ideas and make connections.

Take a look at these two lists I have created on Twitter:
Education: http://twitter.com/#!/NL_84/education
Education II: http://twitter.com/#!/NL_84/education-ii
Both contain hundreds of educators regularly sharing ideas and opinions.
If you have an interest in education in Ireland, you should check out #edchatie.
Follow the #1st5days hashtag on Twitter to pick up some great ideas of what to do in the first five days of the year, and use the hashtag to share your own ideas.

Blogging

If you’re considering setting up a school/class website/blog this year then take a look at this guide from Anseo.net and my previous post about Kidblog.
Make sure your school/class blog is taking part in Seas Suas. This could help drive extra traffic to your blog and increase engagement and commenting.
Keep up with Irish Teacher Blogs and the associated Twitter and Facebook accounts to get ideas from fellow Irish educators throughout the year. If you have a blog, submit it!

More

Viking Direct are usually reliable and cost effective for stationery.
Take a look at this Teacher Smart Back to School Guide (it’s really just a load of ads but you might find something useful!).
Get your students to fill in this simple Google Form from Tom Barrett to help you get to know them.
For those of you using iPads/iPods in school, take a look at this Back to School App Pack from The History 2.0 Classroom.
Teachers.net have been making a series of posts about Getting to Know Each Other Activities that could be useful in the early days with a new class.
Have a look at my posts on apps to find some interesting apps for the year ahead. Teacher Kit is one that could be of particular use.
Dropbox has become an essential classroom tool for me. It’s great being able to prepare stuff on my laptop, tablet or phone and having it magically appear on my school computers! Read this post by Jennifer Carey on the Powerful Learning Practice blog to find out more.
Have a look at these tips for new teachers on the Free Technology for Teachers blog.
Nice Back to School idea here for parents from Marsha M. Moffit Maguire on A Differentiated Kindergarten.
Substitute teachers should read this post from Subkit and this guest post on Seomra Ranga from the same author.
Here’s a post from one of my favourite blogs, Mindshift, with some back to school habits to develop.