🎓 Back to School Starter Kit for Teachers 🙌 w/Templates, Time Savers & How-Tos OH MY!
⏰ TL;DR
This is the start of the BEST YEAR EVER!
🧩 Resource of the Week -Back-2-School Starter Kit
🖖 Livestream of the Week - Teacher Template Resource Roundup!
🛠️ Tech Tip - Brisk will literally save you HOURS every week!!! Legit, add it FO FREE! 🙌
🎓 HONOR ROLL ONLY - The AI Teacher Playbook Masterclass (knock out 6 hours of PD in the process)!
👋 REAL TALK
Back to school week…
“Upbeat Spotify clean song playlist” on loop?
$50 says I Got This Feelin…Inside My Soul...is gonna make an appearance! 😂
Blood-borne pathogens required training?
Oh, oh I missed thee!!
Awkward “New to the District” stand-up-and-wave introductions aside, I’ve personally been the person in charge of that week for a district.
Scheduling the sessions.
Teachers begging for more time in their classroom
Getting signatures so we don’t lose state funding
FUN STUFF!!
It's a dance.
Not always a fun one.
More like a three-legged race where the third leg is a SmartBoard bulb you need that’s been discontinued.
But here’s the thing…
That first year I opened back-to-school as Director of Curriculum and Instruction…
I was terrified.
Didn’t sleep the night before.
Felt like Christmas Eve... except the presents were 3-ring binders and “fun icebreakers” with $5 gift cards.
And as soon as it started tho, it flew by.
That’s this job called teaching.
You prep all summer, then blink, and you’re in October and you know lil Billy’s parents on a first name basis.
Mixed feelings are part of the gig.
Excited.
Tired.
Inspired.
Overstimulated?
Wanting to make a difference… but also dreading the week back cause it means we have to change out of our PJs for the first time in months.
And guess what?
That’s okay.
We’re educators.
We ride the rollercoaster of emotions and try to justify why teenagers need to learn Pythagorean Theorem (no fam, you ain’t gonna use this in real life).
So as you head into the chaos:
✏️ Take a deep breath.
🧼 Survive the trainings.
🪄 Steal back time to plan something that lights you up!
Because this job?
It’s hard.
But it matters.
You got this.
Never stop learning,
📥 THE DROP
Quick wins, free tools, and classroom-ready ideas I’d forward a teacher BFF to save time and teach even better!
🧩 Free Resource of the Week - Back-2-School Templates FOR DAYZZZ!
Here’s your li’l Back-to-School Starter Kit loaded/smothered/covered/topped with essentials to kick off the year like a pro!
Back-2-School Starter Kit- Your all-in-one toolkit for templates, organization, and first-day activities!
Getting to Know You Form - Organized way to connect with students and get their important info!!
Parent Info Collection Form (Great for Open House) - Streamline Open House and gather key details efficiently.
Google Student Checklist - Everything students need to know to form tackle their year!
About Our Class Google Slide - MY FAVORITE collaborative back-2-school activity with students!
Which is Better Icebreaker Game - Have fun and show your students’ personalities!
Which is Better Icebreaker Game - Version 2 - Same thing as before, but different slides 😂
Back-2-School Bingo - Color - Activity for you boujee printer schools!
Back-2-School Bingo - Black & White - Similar, but for those of us on a budget!
Back-2-School Headers - Google Classroom headers to kick off the year!
For all you GOATS on the Honor Roll membership, I made a brand new course with detailed walkthroughs and guides on how to implement customize these templates! It’s like a Celine Dion song came on at the roller-skating rink and we gonna hold hands to get through this together!!
🧩 If you only use one, I like this activity for students that first week! ➡️ About Our Class Google Slide
🛠️ Tech Tip
📚 Just a reminder YOU SHOULD BE USING BRISK IT’S AMAZING!
Brisk is one of those tools that quietly saves you hours and I just wanted to remind you you’re not living right if you’re not using it!
A few things I use it for constantly:
Turn notes into Google Slides presentations
Create Google Forms autograding quizzes from existing slides
Give fast, meaningful feedback on student writing!
It’s practical, it works inside tools you already use, and it cuts down the busywork. Best of all, it’s super easy to use and super free for nearly everything you’ll need!
👉 Get the free Brisk extension here: Brisk Teaching Chrome Extension
🎥 Watch my video: 5 things I love about Brisk!
⏳ Time Saver
Canva Bulk Create = Time Saver Supreme 👑
Canva’s lil Bulk Create feature lets you duplicate templates at scale! Hall passes, certificates, flashcards, name tags, and slides OH MY! All a simple spreadsheet!
Think mail merge or Autocrat, but much more attractive!
🔁 One template
📊 One Google Sheet
📤 Boom. 30+ custom resources in seconds!
Whether you're leveling up your classroom decor or batch-creating student materials, this is a game changer for your workflow and TIMEEEEEEE!!!
🤖 Prompt of the Week
Ask ChatGPT and/or Gemini:
“Create a back-to-school survival guide from the perspective of a classroom object (like a pencil, whiteboard, or student desk) that also helps set classroom expectations in a fun way.”
🎒 Use it as:
A quirky first-day read-aloud
A writing prompt for students
A hallway display that says “this ain’t your average syllabus week”
Engaging? ✅
Educational? ✅
A lil Weird?
🔐 THE VAULT
Weekly highlighted tips, trainings, & resources just for the Honor Roll VIPs! 👩🏫 Admin ➡️ get full access for your ENTIRE school!
🥋 Skill to Help You
In this BRAND NEW COURSE for all you Honor Roll GOATS, we break down what your real role is as a teacher in the age of AI. Spoiler: you're not being replaced, you're doing the thing you got into teaching to do!
Tech may provide answers and convenience, but you provide context, direction, and connection.
You’re the guide, and your students need your help to become the HERO!
✈️ Places I’ll Be
Come hang with me if you’re nearby and/or want an excuse for a road trip! 😁
8.7.2026 Pottsville Schools
8.13.2026 Callaway Chamber of Commerce
8.19.2026 Trenton R-IX
8.20.2026 Milan C-2 School District
8.27.2026 ISTE/Google GEG - Boulder
9.1.2026 Middle Township School District
9.8.2026 ISTE/Google GEG - Austin
3.1.2026 Middle Township
11.4.2026 GaETC
11.10.2026 Arch Ford ESC
12.2.2026 TETC
2.19.2027 NAREN Conference
3.4.2027 NCTIES
If you want me to speak/train at your school and/or conference, hit me up! 🙌
💌 Never Stop Learning!
