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With August almost over, the new school year is rapidly approaching. While school will be much different this year in most places due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the year is going to start almost everywhere in the United States and teachers are preparing for the new year and their new students. Making sure you have everything you need for the new year can be a stressful task and it’s easy to forget things since you’ll have so much on your plate. Here are a few tips to help educators prepare for the new school year.

Think Back On Last Year

One of the great things about being a teacher is that each year you get a new batch of students, essentially giving you a “restart”. Before the new school year begins, think back on the previous year and your own successes and failures throughout it. What worked and what didn’t? It’s good to reflect on these things so you know what NOT to do this year, or how to better prepare and approach the various situations you may end up facing. While you can never be truly prepared for every situation since every student is different, you can still learn from your past mistakes and grow to be a better teacher.

Be Prepared For More Digital Learning

Due to the pandemic, it’s very possible that you may be using digital learning to teach students from home. While some schools are opening back up like normal, others are employing a hybrid system of in-person and from home, learning using digital learning. Other schools are beginning the year entirely online. The situation is different everywhere but it’s important you’re ready to continue using digital learning and that your curriculum has taken that into consideration. There are plenty of different services out there that school’s use, and knowing we’re going into the year and heavily using this technology gives us an advantage for building a curriculum that uses this software properly.

Attend A Workshop

If you still have time before the year starts, try attending a professional development workshop. These can be great ways to improve your skills and better prepare yourself for the upcoming year, especially right now. Due to the pandemic, it’s likely you won’t be able to attend any in-person workshops this summer, but there’s likely plenty of online opportunities you can attend from the comfort of your home. You can learn more about the technology you’ll be using to teach your students this year as well as learning more about classroom management and other topics.