Recently, a teacher friend shared her frustrations with back-to-school in-service days. She described the slides her leadership put together: bright and colorful, each filled with something exciting and fun: a school-wide theme for the year, an incentive program where teachers could earn PTA-funded gift cards, a photo scavenger hunt for teacher teams to take goofy photos. 

She genuinely appreciated the effort her leaders had put in; she loved that they wanted teachers to feel welcomed, connected, and excited about the year ahead. Relationships and community absolutely matter to her.

But she also shared that during each “fun” activity, all she could think about was everything else she still needed to do to get ready for the first day of school. 

Her story reminded me of a lesson I learned in my own classroom.

Early in my teaching career, I spent much of the first week on rules, procedures, community, and relationships before getting into actual content. I thought I was setting students up for success.

Spoiler alert: it wasn’t! 

When we finally got into content, much of what we’d practiced didn’t transfer. Students who had practiced discussion routines, for example, still struggled to have productive mathematical conversations. I found myself backtracking and reteaching expectations in the context where students actually needed to use them. It was as if that first week of school never happened, and we lost valuable instructional minutes! 

Eventually, I tried something different: I started teaching content on day one and built the rules, procedures, community, and relationships into those lessons.  Sure, they went slower than if I’d focused only on content, but that was the point. The end result was a gain in instructional time because I’d helped my students feel ready for instruction, not hypotheticals, from day one.

I know my friend’s principal was trying to do what she thought was best for teachers, but I’d argue there’s another way to help teachers start the year feeling good:

Help them feel ready.

So as you plan back-to-school professional learning, consider a few swaps.

Instead of starting with an icebreaker, start with instruction.

Give teachers an opportunity to dig into what they’ll actually be teaching. Let them examine an upcoming unit, anticipate where students might struggle, look at examples of student thinking, or rehearse an important instructional routine.

Connection can happen while people do meaningful work together.

And teachers leave with something especially valuable in August: a clearer picture of what they’re going to do when students arrive.

Instead of: “Let’s start with a fun activity to get everyone talking.”

Do this: “Let’s look together at what students will be learning in the first unit and identify the moments where we want to be especially ready.”

Instead of telling teachers this will be a great year, help them picture a great first week.

“Let’s make this our best year yet!” leaves a teacher with a lot to figure out. What does that mean at 9:15 on Tuesday morning?

Make the destination closer and more concrete.

Show teachers what a strong instructional routine can look like. Walk through a lesson together. Look at actual student responses. Let teachers practice how they might respond.

Move the goal from having a great year to knowing what I’m going to try on Monday.

Instead of: “This year, we’re going to take instruction to the next level.”

Do this: “By the end of today, you’ll have a plan for your first week and have practiced one routine you can use with students right away.”

Instead of team building around the work, build the team through the work.

We sometimes treat community-building and instructional preparation as competing priorities. They don’t have to be.

Give a grade-level or content team a real instructional problem to solve together.

Which examples will we use? What misconceptions should we anticipate? How will we respond if students do X? 

Now teachers are learning something about instruction and something about one another.

Who asks the question nobody else thought of? Who notices the student perspective? Who has a strategy worth borrowing?

That’s team building, too.

Instead of: An activity designed primarily to help colleagues connect.

Do this: Give colleagues in the same grade and/or content area student data to review and have them discuss ways in which they can collaborate to support students who are coming into the year struggling the most. 

Instead of filling every minute, give teachers the floor.

This may be the simplest swap of all. Teachers often arrive at back-to-school professional learning carrying a very practical list in their heads.

I need to look at that first unit.

I need to figure out how I’m going to teach this.

I need to talk to my team.

So give them time to do it. Not unstructured time with a vague instruction to “work in your rooms.” Give teachers a clear structure to surface their own concerns and enough uninterrupted time to make meaningful progress with their colleagues.

Instead of: Filling the agenda with leader-led slides because you have everyone together.

Do this: Use a structured problem-of-practice protocol to allow teachers to bring up a specific, real-world instructional challenge with their curriculum. “Struggling to get students to engage in discourse? Let’s look at the small group and student pair activities in Unit One and talk through what scaffolds students may need to complete them successfully.” 

One question to put at the top of your back-to-school agenda

None of this means eliminating joy, connection, celebration, or fun. I bet you could even find a way to work in those PTA gift cards. 

It just means recognizing that one of the most powerful feelings we can give a teacher at the beginning of the school year is confidence.

The confidence that comes from understanding what students need to learn. From knowing what you’re going to do. From having practiced it. From knowing which colleagues you can turn to. From having enough time to prepare.

So before adding another activity to your back-to-school professional learning agenda, ask one question:

Will this help teachers feel more ready to teach their students on day one?

If the answer is yes, protect it. If the answer is no, consider whether there’s a better use of that precious time. Because when teachers leave back-to-school professional learning, the feeling we’re aiming for isn’t just:

That was fun.

Or even:

That was inspiring.

It’s: I’m ready. I know what to do next.