Where did the summer go? With the start of a new year, I’ve gathered back-to-school resources from our amazing PD teamand staff here at TCEA. Check out this categorized list full of ideas to create a successful school year.
You can skip to a section by selecting a category below:
Classroom Icebreakers for Back to School Try these fun back-to-school icebreakers with your new students and be amazed at how quickly you learn who they are and what they like.
Ebook: Digital Icebreakers That Shatter:Activities to Break the Ice Ice breakers are a great way to encourage interaction, make introductions, boost involvement, and form communities. Whether you’re leading a classroom on the first day of school or a new training session, this eBook will help you get things off on the right foot!
“This, Not That” Bellringers The latest version of the “This, Not That” bellringers includes a change in format and some new activities for back to school.
Five Ways Leaders Can Improve School Culture School culture affects everything. As a school leader, what’s your role in improving your school’s culture? And how can you change it?
Speed Geeking for Your Next Faculty Meeting Familiar with speed geeking? This quick, engaging, and interactive approach to professional learning can spice up your next faculty meeting!
Back to School Ideas for Leaders With a little effort and some creativity, you can provide a memorable “welcome back to school” message for your staff, teachers, or students!
Back to School: Five Tips for CTOs Heading back to school, stakeholders’ eyes will be on you and how you resolved their issues and problems. Here are five tips to ensure you are ready.
Quotes for the New School Year If you’re looking for inspiration for the new year, look no further. Check out some quotes and tips for using them to inspire students.
Building a School Culture That Works Discover how to craft the classroom or school culture you want this year by including these important pieces.
10 Tips and Tools for School Leaders Hey, school leaders! Are you looking for some tips and tools to apply to your leadership? Look no further. In this post, you’ll discover 10.
Personality Test for Professional Development Try this free personality test to learn more about yourself. Then think about how you might incorporate it into professional learning with your peers.
Seven Back-to-School Tips for Librarians Librarians, how do you get ready for the school year? Here are seven tips with some resources and tools to help you have your best year yet.
Canva Templates for Librarians Canva’s librarian-friendly templates are a game-changer! From book display posters to social media graphics, they’ve got it all. You’ll love how easy it is to create pro-looking visuals for your library.
Empowering Students as Digital Leaders Here are two ways students can be leaders in digital literacy and citizenship and six tips on how to get started on your campus!
Finding the Perfect Book to Read Next Discover a variety of free tech tools that will help you find exactly the best next book to read or to discuss with friends around the world.
Finding Free Audiobooks for Educators Discover four great resources for free audiobooks that both you and your students can enjoy, thus providing another way to personalize learning.
Prepping for a STEM/STEAM Year STEM/STEAM activities are a powerful way to engage students. Here are a few resources to help you prepare for a stem-rific school year.
Back to School with STEM STEM activities are a powerful way to engage students. Here are a few resources to kick off your school year in the STEM direction.
Seven Ready-to-Use Story Bin STEM Activities Embark on a journey of story-fueled engineering design and problem-solving with story bins. Explore this creative idea for young learners!
We Have to Save Fred! Always a favorite, The Save Fred Challenge is great for team building. Plus, check out extension ideas to create a perfect day of learning.
Solo Cup Engineering Challenge The Solo Cup Engineering Challenge is perfect for team-building. Students and adults love this activity for fun and learning.
Starting a Robotics Program Running a robotics program can be a challenge, especially at the start. But fear not; we’re exploring everything that goes into a successful program.
14 Editable SEL Check-In Templates From LEGOS to llamas, grab some themed SEL check-in templates! Plus, learn how they benefit students’ social-emotional development.
Activities
Back to School Breakout Elementary teachers, are you looking for a great resource for back to school? How about a digital breakout to kick off your year?
Email Writing for Students In today’s digital world, teaching your students the art of writing an email is a must. This blog has lesson ideas, videos, and resources to help.
Dicebreakers and Activity Debriefing Explore how to engage students in self-judgement and reflection using dice debriefing activities and dicebreakers. Get some templates, too!
Google Templates for Students Looking for a template to get your students started on a project? We’ve found some great Google Docs and Slides templates to use as they are or change up to match your classroom.
Frayer Model Template for Word Analysis Need a quick way to introduce students to tough vocabulary? In this follow-up to “Semantic Maps Made Easy,” see and get Frayer Model templates.
High Impact Strategy: Using Google and Self-Reported Grades Student self-reported grades is a powerful instructional strategy that all teachers should use. Combine it with Google tools and the learning skyrockets. Plus, grab several templates like this pizza one above.
Meet ALDO: Amazing Lesson Design Outline ALDO, the Amazing Lesson Design Outline, provides educators with a way to ensure that each lesson is engaging and carefully thought out.
EduProtocols: Workflowing Amazing Lesson Design ALDO becomes WALDO! Explore a lesson design outline with lots of resources for mixing and matching strategies, EduProtocols, and digital tools.
Back to School Apps for Lesson Planning Looking for tools to make lesson planning easier? Look no further than these three free apps that can assist you in designing amazing learning experiences.
Lesson Planning: 5E Model + Technology Lesson planning remains a tool for teachers to use to make sure they are covering the required material. If you follow the 5E Model for planning and add technology to it, you end up with a very powerful way to bring the curriculum to life for all students.
Creating a Choice Boardfor Your Classroom Ready to create an interactive learning opportunity for students? Take advantage of choice boards. In this blog entry, we’ll cover five steps to create one.
Choice Boards for Elementary Learners Take your elementary classroom to the next level with these choice board examples and templates. Your students will thank you!
Choice Boards for Active Learning in Math Choice boards are a powerful tool to use in any subject, and that includes math. Here are some examples for all grade levels.
Top Five Tech Tools for New Teachers What are the tech tools that every new teacher needs? Hear from TCEA’s Area 19 Director, Crystal Fuentes, as she shares her top five.
An Online Wheel Spinner for Every Occasion Looking for a random generator in the form of a spinner? Here are seven easy spinners that will get you selecting a winner quick and easy.
Digital Tools for News Literacy Explore these resources to help students make sense of the media they are exposed to and build lasting news literacy skills.
Quick and Easy Tools for Making Flashcards If you’re looking for tools to make online flashcards to help students recall important information and practice skills, here is a goldmine!
Ready, Set, LEGO Wall If you are thinking about having a LEGO wall in a makerspace, classroom, or library, be sure to check out these tips before you start building.
Free Classroom Posters to Engage Students These classroom posters can be used for special months of celebration or hung all year long. Take a look — they’re all free!
Make Coaching Connections Are you a new instructional coach headed back to school? Take advantage of these tips and suggestions.
Pineapple Charts: Learning From Your Peers Pineapple charts help educators easily learn from each other. Using pineapple charts makes scheduling that learning simple and convenient.
Three Questions for Instructional Coaching These three questions help establish the groundwork for effective instructional coaching and result in a deeper relationship and real teaching improvement.
Things I Wish I’d Known As an Instructional Coach Learn ten of the important things that I wish I’d known as an instructional coach that will help you to have a greater impact on the teachers you help.
Conference for Educational Coaches Sign up for the Conference for Educational Coaches (CEC) to discover the latest in professional development, best practices for coaching, and even more ideas for supporting educators. Attend in person in Austin, Texas or online from October 9-10.
Artificial Intelligence
How to Create a Responsible Use Policy for AI Have you been asked to develop a school AI policy? Check out some resources and a process for integrating AI into your responsible use policy.
ChatGPT Prompts for Busy Educators Take a look at ChatGPT prompts for educators! Learn how to craft your best prompt to maximize your results and get what you’re looking for.
How to Create a Rubric with ChatGPT Get an editable prompt template and create a rubric with ChatGPT in less than one minute! Watch it work its magic in an example video.
How to Differentiate Texts with ChatGPT Need an adapted or translated text? Use ChatGPT to generate differentiated texts and better accommodate varied reading and language levels!
How Reliable Are AI Detectors Do AI detectors really work? You may be surprised. See how seven popular tools fared when put to the test with AI-generated text.
I hope these strategies, activities, templates, and more get the brain flowing with ideas to create a successful start. Have a wonderful new school year!
Sara Qualls is the Digital Marketing Specialist at TCEA. She has been in the world of digital marketing since 2008. She is passionate about helping businesses communicate their ideas and stories through social media and all forms of digital marketing including SEO, email marketing, automation, content marketing, analytics, advertising, and more.
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