Take some time to reflect and self-assess for yourself or your team at school. What can you work on? Are there Professional Development days before school starts or on set days during the school year that you want to use to focus on learning new teaching strategies? We encourage the kids to have a growth mindset, so we should do the same!
Tight on time? Watch some short videos about new instructional strategies that you can try in your courses this coming year.
Have more time? Devote a half day to learn ways to unlock the power of classroom discussion or another topic of your choice!
2. Get up and running on digital resources now, so that you’re ready to roll on Day 1Using G-W resources? Be sure to check out our Training page to make the most of your digital materials—from product overviews that explain the features in your textbook programs to seeing how your resources function in your LMS.
3. Looking for creative activities and bellringers?
Start stockpiling new resources from our Tools for Educators page.
• First Day icebreakers for Construction; Business, Marketing, and Finance; Healthcare, Health Education; and Animal Science
• Instructional Strategies:
Four Corners for Child Development
Window Notes for Welding
Jigsaw Method for Career Exploration
Caption This for Automotive
• Personal Journal Prompts for Healthcare and Human Services
• Soft Skills Station Lab for Healthcare
4. Hoping to engage new students in your class with a fun bulletin board?
If you have a bulletin board outside your door or inside your class, take some inspiration from the examples we’ve curated here, like this Health Education one from our recent contest for bulletin board creativity. Health teacher Morgan Hernandez created her “Healthy Habits, Thankful Hearts” board.
Here are some other ideas that we found online:
• Career Exploration
These two Monster’s Inc-theme bulletin boards incorporate printed characters and colorful doors to highlight a variety of careers or resources students can consider or explore as they think about their future.
Make it your own:
Switch out new doors throughout the year. Update the doors throughout the year as you discuss new career pathways, CTSOs, courses, certifications, and salaries with your students, or have each student decorate their own door with their values, passions, and goals.
Looking for more career exploration activities or up-to-date salary, education, and career information? Request samples of either Discovering Careers or School to Career.
• Family and Consumer Sciences
This “Eat This…Not That” bulletin board, from a college Resident Assistant, could be a great way to encourage students to practice reading nutrition labels and consider alternatives to popular and unhealthy snacks.
Make it your own:
Have your students build this board as an assignment for reading nutrition labels by comparing a variety of nutrition labels or analyze the ingredients on a staple food product and find a healthy alternative recipe they can make in class or at home. Students can post photos of their creations in the “Eat This” column.
Looking for additional activities for food and nutrition courses? Request a sample of either Guide to Good Food or Nutrition for Wellness and Life.
• Education and Training
Classroom notetaking got easier with this interactive Child Development board that could be used all year long as students take turns summarizing the physical, social, intellectual, and emotional stages of growth and development for each age group or by each topic.
Make it your own:
Turn this board into a game for review! Break your class into teams. State a physical, social, emotional, or intellectual trait. The first to check or add an X to the correct box gets a point for their team.
Looking for more classroom activities for Child Development courses? Request a sample of either Child Development or Child and Youth Development.
• Health Science
This Operation-themed bulletin board, Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes, makes key anatomy & physiology skills fun, with space to highlight key organs, structures, and x-ray images. Looking for an easy way to cut out the headlines so they look skeletal? Print them using a font like Warbones.
Make it your own:
Turn this board into a game! Laminate the structures and organs and place them in a basket near the board, and have students place the pieces in the correct spot.
Looking for Med Term or A&P classroom activities? Request a sample of Introduction to Medical Terminology or Introduction to Anatomy & Physiology.
• Journalism
Sharing examples of past student work or posting up their current successes can be inspiration to new writers. This “Hot off the Press” bulletin board idea could use examples of professional journalism or samples from students.
Make it your own:
Incorporate your school’s publication in the title and display printed pages from your school’s newspaper or yearbook.
Looking for Journalism classroom activities? Request a sample of Journalism: Publishing Across Media.
Final Thoughts
Hopefully you’re feeling inspired, prepared, and excited for Back to School! With PD, training, classroom activities, and CTE and Health resources, the G-W team is here to help. Have a great year!
Photo Credits:
Thumbnail: G-W Publisher
Image 1: Morgan Hernandez/x.com
Image 2: Jessica Spillane/pinterest.com
Image 3: recipemagik.com/pinterest.com
Image 4: reslifelove.wordpress.com/pinterest.com
Image 5: dc6pgo-twitpic/pinterest.com
Image 6: weareteachers.com/pinterest.com
Image 7: mrswilliskindergarten.com/pinterest.com
