Links for your First Day of School

New Teachers Guide Book (Archive)
How do you grade your various class projects? Do you have a solid and effective classroom management plan all set up? Do you need some ideas to help you get organized and started? Find ideas here for all of the above, as well as a sample first day schedule to help you prepare for your own entry into the classroom.

New Teachers Survival Guide (PDF document archive)
Several useful forms have been included with this New Teacher's Survival Guide, including late sign-in sheets, sample contracts with parent briefing guides, progress reports, homework checklists and grade sheets, and classroom set-up templates, along with guides for organization, student conduct, planning your first day, and more.

Planning for Your First Day at School
On the first day of school, the secret to success is in the planning, not the pedagogy. How's your back-to-school planning going? Have you forgotten anything?

 

Copyright Information
What can a teacher copy to give to their students? Can a teacher use printed images for their newsletters or classroom materials? These are the kinds of things a teacher needs to know so they don't unintentionally infringe on another artists rights.

 

New Teacher Resource Page
A survival guide for new teachers filled with resources, tools, and tips by Scholastic.

 

Teacher Survival Sites [Archive]
A comprehensive list of links that deal with the core of good teaching. Links for technology and other essential resources are also included. The site is hosted by Horace Mann Financial Solutions.

 

What Makes a Great Teacher?
"What makes a great teacher? Teaching is one of the most complicated jobs today. It demands broad knowledge of subject matter, curriculum and standards; enthusiasm, a caring attitude and a love of learning; knowledge of discipline and classroom management techniques; and a desire to make a difference in the lives of young people."

Links to Help With Discipline

Behavior Management
View blogs, read about discipline ideas, learn 11 techniques for better classroom discipline, incentives, and read about various discipline philosophies. Also see IAD's page on discipline.

Discipline Help: You Can Handle Them All
Learn how to handle over 117 misbehaviors at school. Read about how to deal with class clowns, cheaters, agitators, criers, fighters, and more.

Threat Assessment [Archive]
Preventing school violence is a top priority for school and public safety officials today. These prevention efforts include creating more positive school environments, establishing crisis response teams, increasing security measures, and improving collaboration between schools and communities. Considerable energy also has been devoted to developing strategies to identify students at risk of becoming violent before they cause harm.

TeacherFirst
This site includes many resources that is useful to the first year teacher. See puzzles, brain twisters, blogs, and classroom resources. You can find resources by subject and grade level or by keyword search.

Wizzlewolf's Webpage for Beginning Teachers [Archive]
This page includes links to a new teacher cha*tboard, tips for new teachers, lesson plans, resources, and ideas.

Helpful Hints for Beginning Teachers [Archive]
This is a helpful article by Jane Bluestein, Ph.D. It includes comments on student discipline, how to make your classroom run smoothly, how to make your students succeed and how to be accepted as part of the staff.

Links to Help With Instruction

Glossary of Instructional Strategies [Archive]
An alphabetized glossary of instructional terms and strategies. by PlasmaLink. There are also links from some of the terms.

Responsive Classroom
A practical approach to creating safe, challenging, and joyful elementary schools. You can subscribe to a free newsletter and sign up for workshops.

Art & Learning to Think & Feel
A collection of links by Marvin Bartel to teach thinking and growing the mind. It includes ideas on how to use drawing to increase visual thinking.

 

College Board
AP Central's Drawing Course home page. See information about the exam, studio art teachers' guide, curriculum, instruction and many resources.

Links to Keep Your Students Safe

Working Safely with Art Materials
New art teachers don't think about safety enough. Read about safety practices, health, and a list of hazards.

Health & Safety in the Arts [Archive]
The goal of this project is to reduce potential health hazards for Tucson artists, teachers, arts organizations and surrounding neighborhoods by stimulating the following: pollution prevention/source reduction practices, waste minimization, decreased health risks and increased awareness in the arts community.

 

Art Materials Safety

Many art materials produced today are safe to use, but only if reasonable precautions are taken.

 

Pollution Prevention for Arts Education [Archive]
Believe it or not, but there is a lot of pollution in the art classroom. If your art room doesn't have a vent for your kiln, use the information found here to justify its purchase to your principal.

Hazards
This searchable page includes many links including chemicals in the art classroom that can cause allergic reactions in students.

Assemblies & Visiting Artist

Picasso People - With 25-45 minute workshops, mime, puppetry and more.

Young Audiences: Arts for Learning - A nation-wide organization that provides skits, visiting artists, performances and more.