How to prepare for Term 1: A teacher's guide

Every year, Term 1 comes around, and I find myself thinking, "What can I do right now that will have the most impact for my students and me this term?" 

Newsflash: it's not writing lessons or activities from scratch, or even becoming the most knowledgeable non-physics, physics teacher (I know!). It's about thinking about what will bring ‘calm joy’ to my classroom and my practice. 

Here are three actions that I always prioritise every year:

1) Establish classroom routines that will set up the year ahead

After checking who’s in my class and what classrooms I am teaching in. I take the time to decide which classroom routines I want to implement with my students.

Establishing routines from the first week helps to protect teaching and learning time for everyone. If I make it routine, it’s easy. But I need to know what those routines are first, and then teach them to my students. 

Personally, I prioritise two routines:

• Entry routine: what students do the moment they walk in
• Attention routine: what happens when you need everyone back with you

Keep it simple when establishing routines with students:

• Explain what “good” looks like (observable and specific)
• Model it and rehearse it with your students
• Reinforce it over the first few lessons

Clear routines protect learning time, reduce cognitive load, and help my students focus on learning rather than logistics; the logistics become automated. 

Bonus: streamlined routines mean I’m calmer and more joyful, too!

2) Use the high-quality resources already available

The start of the year can tempt us to “start fresh” (new year, new me?). Often, that means more work for little reward. Especially when high-quality lessons already exist, and using them well matters more than creating everything from scratch.

I take time before the term starts to familiarise myself with the units, individual lessons, and teacher resources available to me.

This helps me make informed decisions about pacing, explanation, discussion, and where to adapt for my students’ needs, while keeping lesson quality high.

So really, it’s new year, more efficient me.

3) Book your PL early (so it actually happens)

I’m one of those people who is known to say “I’ll book it closer to the date.” Except I wait too long, and then I miss out on something I really wanted to go to, like AC/DC, Lady Gaga or CONASTA 2025.

Rather than trying to improve everything at once, I pick one area to focus on and commit to it. Small, focused improvements to practice can have the biggest impact.

So I ask, how will you carve out time to invest in yourself? Whether it’s a Stile PL or something else, planning and getting approval early makes it far more likely to happen.

If it isn’t scheduled, it becomes “later”… and a lot can happen in a school year.

Good luck with your first classes! I hope this helps you focus on what helps the most for your teaching and student learning.

About Chloe 

I’m  Chloe. Stile’s professional learning leader and pedagogical nerd. 🤓 I love teaching and learning, and importantly, science. I work to share my most practical classroom moves that help make teaching more joyful.

Let's stay connected! You can find me sharing resources over at the Stile Teachers Facebook Group