Creating a class culture that nurtures community, builds relationships between students and teachers, as well as addresses all students social emotional needs can set the groundwork for a successful school year.
Culture Ideas
Create a survey to get to know your students. You can find one here
Social Contract: Establish classroom guidelines with your class. Find slides and lesson directions here
Establish opening and closing routines. One example of an opening routine is a mood meter, like the ones at the bottom, to see how students' are feeling. You can find more mood slides in this file here.
A closing routine could be the compass checklist, seen at the bottom of this page. Here is the link to the document.
Find more opening and closing routines here
Use the Padlet for students to connect with you and one another.
Have your students learn more about each other using these breakout room ideas
Find an example here
Focus on team building or personal activities with students at the beginning of the school year, rather than strictly on content. Here is an example from teacher Heather Nonaca's class:
Read this article for more ideas!
https://www.facinghistory.org/back-to-school/teaching-toolkit/