September 2025

“We’ve been waiting for you to get here. This place isn’t the same without you.”

My brain cues up my mentor’s pearls of wisdom fairly often, and her words of belonging to our new group kindly roll through my heart and mind at new beginnings. How could you not love the person who greets you with such warmth? But these pearls of wisdom can be overshadowed when I am faced with back-to-school overload. I don’t know about you, but I’ve been in back-to-school overload lately. 

Once again, Nancy, my mentor, reminded me to focus and chill out. School is about people. Young people. So, with her wisdom in mind, here is an anti-overload to-do list:

Make a community.

A school year is a very significant portion of my students’ lives. I can make this year count. I will use the first chapter of math to establish a positive classroom culture and co-create learning agreements. I will teach and use team roles to give every student a need and responsibility to engage. In this classroom, we work hard, and we work together, because working for something is more satisfying than just getting it.

Simplify.

Building trusting relationships with my students so I can push them into the unknown is my most important work. Not rewriting the lessons. Not making handouts, cute or otherwise. My time is precious, so I spend it on understanding the Teacher Notes and the mathematical goal of the lesson. I’m saving my bandwidth for questioning and interacting with my students while they engage in mathematics. When I teach my kids how to manage digital resources and notebooks, they develop tech skills, and I don’t have to spend my time at the copy machine. Because odds are, that means I spend too much of my bandwidth fixing a paper jam.  

Give students the chance to surprise you.

The most beautiful thing about a student-centered classroom is when students take that center like it is center stage.

Adolescents have more potential than they even know, and I intend to get out of the way so I can be in awe of them and their abilities! I will use all the Study Team and Teaching Strategies to get them to talk instead of me: Notice and Wonder, Stop and Scan, Swapmeet, Quick Pitches, and more. There are so many ways I can give my students a voice and opportunity to share just how much they know and can do.

Let’s do this. 

So, what’s on your back-to-school to-do list? I challenge you to put #2 pencil to paper and reflect on what you can do to exude a sense of belonging, relevance, and purpose for your students.

And don’t forget… when you greet them at the door… “We’ve been waiting for you to get here. This place isn’t the same without you.”