Action Plan For Educators

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By Week 1

This period starts between before day 1 to end of week 1.

If you’re limited on preparation time, focus on setting up classroom management and procedures, followed by syllabus and lesson plans.

You may need to spend time outside of work to get everything done. In this first week, that is perfectly OK. If you invest the proper time planning now and set up your systems early on, even if they’re basic scaffolds, then you save significant time later on.

If this is your first year teaching, you’re going to struggle with management. That’s not meant to scare you off, but a lot of people falsely assume teachers just teach and that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

  • The first year for many jobs typically involves struggling, which is normal, but especially so with teaching.
  • This is why I made several chapters dedicated to management alone in a teaching/instructional book!
  • Do not be everything to everyone; focus on teaching and managing students.

I’ll start with two assumptions in place:

  1. Designed for a year-long (or semester-long) class session taking place at a physical location for primary or secondary education.
  2. You have at least a few days to 1 week BEFORE class starts for preparation.

The very first day of a classroom setting. Depending on your timeframe, like if your entire curriculum is one day long, what you need prepared may change.

If you only have a few prep days, focus on lesson plans, syllabus, classroom procedures and rules, and basic supplies. This is so you’re not scrambling last minute and other things can be figured out during breaks.

If you can only do one thing, then do classroom procedures and rules. Drill students on what to do when X situation arises, or how to do specific tasks the way you want, and have them do it on their own without reminders every time. It will help you immensely with classroom management in the future.

Here are some things I’d like to have (and/or know) by week 1. I’m focusing on the bare essentials over “nice to haves” to balance preparedness with minimal cost and effort, plus the ability to address many situations:

  • Facility access, like keys and scannable ID badge
  • Parking space (if applicable)
  • Assigned classroom(s) locations
  • Building layout map
  • Work contacts, like principal, support staff, other teachers in the department, etc.
  • A syllabus
  • Basic supplies: markers, pencils, pens, paper, sticky notes, rulers, etc.
  • Lesson plan for the day and/or first week
  • List of standards and objectives for your class(es) taught
  • Classroom procedures and rules
    • Additionally emergency procedures too
  • Seating assignments (if applicable)
  • Cleaning supplies
  • Desks and chairs (if applicable)
  • Function utilities (HVAC, sinks, fridges, ovens, etc.)
  • School and/or class schedule
  • List of students for the class(es)
  • Account information for computers, payroll systems, work emails, etc.
  • Specialist supplies (for subject-specific needs)
    • E.g., a class on medicine may need medical supplies ready on day 1
  • First Aid Kit (i.e. a “FAK”)
  • Something to carry your supplies around
    • Backpack, binder, etc.
  • Locations of critical areas on campus, such as lounge, fridge, bathrooms, front office, and nurse’s office
  • List of software and other tools you need for class on the first day
  • N95 and KN95 (or higher grade) masks (FDA, 2024)
  • Some snacks hidden away. You never know when you might want a little snacky snack.
    • E.g. I mathed out one of my desk drawers was large enough to stow away a 6-pack box of donuts from Safeway and King Soopers.

Think of it like climbing a plateau. It is steep initially, but once you reach the top, it flattens out and is easier to traverse. Not every item may be needed, but this serves as a baseline.

Making Adjustments

There’s a chance you find out, probably the hard way, you’ll need to do things differently to meet student needs and accommodations.

Firstly, don’t panic yet. That’s normal to not have everything line up with expectations.

Now that you’ve avoided panic (hopefully), it’s not the end of the world. The first week is used for sorting out the classroom environment and starting up curricula, so sorting out feasible adjustments now works in your favor.

Here’s a quick deduction process you can do:

  • Figure out and define the problem(s)
  • Determine any blockers, if any, to solve the problems
  • Refine the problem set to focus on specific problems you can solve
  • Formulate many possible solutions (at first)
  • Refine the solutions until you’re at the minimum number of solutions needed to solve all problems

For those in the designer workspace, this may look familar to the Double Diamond framework popularized by the Design Council (2005). That’s intentional, as you’re also exploring what the problems are and potential solutions to those problems here too.

Syllabus

A syllabus is essential information for the student to know about in your class. Depending on student demographics, this can be either simple or more complex in design.

This may include, but is not limited to:

  • Learning objectives and goals
  • Grades/grading distribution
  • Late work policies
  • Absences
  • Exam schedule
  • Course content outline
  • Classroom schedule & meeting times
  • Required materials and account information
    • For physical textbooks, online programs, etc.
  • Payment methods, payment plans, and monetary costs (if applicable)
  • Overview of classroom procedures and rules

The syllabus isn’t a legal document, but it must be accessible and clear to students taking your course(s).

Lesson Plan

Lesson plans are a roadmap and a written record of what you’re teaching. They keep you on track, provide documentation to show “proof of learning” if disputes arise, and outline methods used to teach your material.

A lesson plan can include lectures, activities, projects, material covered on X day/week, tests, quizzes, field trips, and more.

Classroom Procedures and Rules

These are what you want students to do automatically and correctly without much intervention from you.

To give some examples of procedures to cover:

  • What students should do when they enter a room
  • Taking attendance
  • Where to turn in work
  • What to do when teacher(s) not present in the room
  • Transitioning between rooms/periods
  • Quieting the room to redirect attention
  • Where classroom supplies go and their use

Good procedures reduce management overhead and enforce knowing what to do, rather than using up extra time to think about what to do. Many procedures are only effective if enforced consistently as well, so don’t assume students know and teach explicitly what you need them to learn.

If, by your choice or not by your choice, you have to start on material day 1 or 2 regardless of whatever else happens, spend as much of day 1 as possible going over classroom procedures to ensure students know how to function inside your classroom.

As a final warning: do not assume that because everything looked like it went well, that it actually went well. If even one mistake or detail goes wrong, reteach and remind as soon as possible or you risk your classroom management plan falling apart.

First Aid Kit (FAK)

Disclaimer: Not medical advice. Consult professionals for medical guidance.

I’ve been pleasantly surprised how often a FAK was necessary, even for minor injuries and the occasional request for a bandage. Most information for a FAK can be found online across multiple, credible sources like MedlinePlus and American Red Cross.

You may also see different types of medical kits, such as bleeding control or trauma kits, in addition to first aid kits. I’m focusing on first aid kits here because each type of medical kit, while essential and helpful, serves different functions and are not necessarily interchangeable.

For legal reasons, teachers may not administer drugs to students, except under rare, narrowly defined, and explict scenarios. These restricted drugs include, but are not limited to:

  • Ointments (Vaseline and Neosporin)
  • Pain Medicine (Tylenol, Advil, Ibuprofen, etc.)
    • Hospitals and medical facilities track their use through acetaminophen (“Tylenol”) levels
    • It can be difficult to find how much acetaminophen you did take and overdosing can cause liver damage or death (MedlinePlus, 2023)
    • You’re very unlikely to have medicine, such as acetylcysteine, as antidotes for any issues like overdosing.
  • Creams, lotions, and medicated wipes

An overdose, even accidental, is a medical emergency that you do not want to cause, or be responsible for, and can lead to death.

Some items are in a grey area, such as disinfectants and antiseptic wipes. For those, confirm with a principal, administrator, and/or nursing staff first before using, and also confirm the cases where it can be used.

You may also consider a bottle of peppermint concentrate/oil/extract. You can safely avoid that because the likelihood you deal with a foul smell on the level of putrescine or cadaverine in your work setting is extremely low.

Non-drug items I find typically safe for classroom First Aid Kits (FAKs) (MedlinePlus, 2025):

  • Bandages
  • Sharpie markers
  • Scissors/Shears (blunt or rounded tip preferred)
  • Tweezers
  • Disposable Nitrile Gloves
  • Thermal/Rescue Blanket
  • Cold Compress
  • Medical Tape
  • Gauze (Plain, Pad/Square, and/or Roller)

These are items I would expect many people, including students, to utilize with manageable risk. Adapt the list as needed.

Other medical items, like tourniquets and chest seals, don’t administer drugs but require training to avoid life-threatening misuse. Though more workplaces in 2025 have better medical training for staff, high stress situations can still impair judgment and increase accidental risk.

There’s also two other rules of thumb for FAKs I prefer to follow:

  1. Review FAKs each year and discard any expired items; many medical items have shelf lives of only 1 to 5+ years (American Red Cross, 2024).
  2. When you’re experienced enough, create your own first aid kit(s) based on specific needs. This helps you know what supplies are in the kit, where they’re located, and lower patient response times.

Designing Classrooms

If you’ve ever hosted a dinner party for important guests, you may’ve taken extra care for how you set it up. For example, the area is presentable towards guests, the table(s) you’re seated at is prepared with cutlery, napkins, and perhaps some condiments, and people are ready accommodate you with food and drink options, like a glass of water, while you wait for food to be fully served.

Taking a similar approach to a classroom, this is like setting up desks for students to sit down at, preparing materials for your lectures, activities, and projects in advance, and the educator themselves is prepared to instruct at the designated classroom time.

The First Days of School by H.K. Wong and R.T. Wong also emphasize the importance of classroom preparations (2018). To paraphrase further examples from their book:

  • Do not overcrowd and clutter the area.
  • Do not overdecorate.
  • Keep preparations as simple as necessary.
  • Ensure the area is safe, secure, and functional.
  • Design the classroom to best respond to emergencies as necessary.

If it’s the first week of instruction, I’d say to keep desks facing towards where the instructor is at so students can put a name to a face rather than disassociate instructor and material. After this first week, feel free to change things up.

You’ll also want to design the classroom in such a way to not make students think. That isn’t to say they cannot pay attention, but instead to limit cognitive load when reasonable. For example:

  • Listing the agenda and/or procedures on a whiteboard or projector screen
  • Rules displayed and visible from any part of the area
  • Simple decorations to enhance the visual appeal of the room without risking distractions
  • Setting up furniture to not obscure vision and force students to move around often just to see
  • Preparing pre-made guides, like list of materials for a classroom, you may hand to students so they have a copy handy.
    • You may also post them online or via email in case they’re absent for this artifact.

What About Labs?

This is mainly for science teachers.

For labs, your room likely has a lot of equipment you don’t want mishandled.

A good way to mitigate mishandling is organization stations to retrieve and return items to. On the day of labs, you’ll want to make your way over to those stations and ensure the process runs smoothly.

You’ll also want to maintain the condition of equipment in these stations. A 5 minute cleaning is far better time spent than 1 hour looking up purchase orders to replace a slightly dirty object. You may also need computers for simulations, online labs, and more. Similar process: have stations to retrieve and store them at and ensuring they’re properly handled. Not every “lab” needs extensive equipment either; some labs are doable entirely on computers in modern times.

As for the lab material, most experiments are:

  1. Setting up equipment
  2. Measuring X
  3. Determining Y

That’s the basic premise. Design a clearly defined procedure with this in mind and you’re most of the way there already. This applies neatly at the high school level (sometimes college level) and below. It’s not likely you’ll get a lab activity every week.

I’d aim for at least one lab per unit of material to model what you teach in real-world environments. Don’t do labs in isolation though; science concepts still require breaking them down into simpler ideas and explaining the processes through lectures and other activities. Without appropriate background knowledge, orchestrating the lab is significantly more difficult.

You can make students do labs individually, but expect to do groups for labs and similar high-impact activities. This is to save costs on materials, but also to get students to work together. If you’re fearful of the “group project” effect, you may assign tasks to individuals so they maintain some accountability to lab success.

By Month 1

This period occurs between after week 1 to end of month 1.

If week 1 was setting up the foundation, then month 1 is consolidating and sorting the resources needed to build up and maintain a functioning classroom. If there’s items from week 1 not complete, then get those done as soon as possible.

This timeframe is difficult precisely because everything is still “new.” Expect to still spend time outside work hours in this month. Just like in week 1, it’s like paying down a loan; if you pay extra money now towards the principal on top of the interest, the average interest across all future pay periods decreases.

By end of month 1, aim to have most of the following sorted out:

  • A document, table, or database with key links to organizations, suppliers, software, resources, etc.
    • You can update this over time, but get the majority done in month 1.
  • Student seating assignments (if applicable).
  • Lesson plans for next week.
  • Knowing how to use the grading system.
  • Templates for assignments, quizzes, projects, labs, and tests.
  • Ideas for how to approach the unit(s) and topic(s) you’re covering (see “Agile Teaching Framework” for example).
  • Software/account issues resolved for students and teacher(s).
  • Student contact information stored and organized.
  • Outstanding payments from students collected (if applicable).
    • If still outstanding, send gentle reminders via email or other contact methods.

Month 1 is storing and organizing your “teaching database” to quickly access and retrieve information from. Cleaning and organizing takes up the bulk of setup time before its usable, but it’s worth taking extra time to get your ducks in a row.

Lesson Plans (Post Week 1)

After week 1, your principal or another administrator may set expectations for lesson plan structures. Safest bet is to just follow that.

If you don’t have a “boss,” though, you’ll want to check for questions like these:

  • What are the learning objectives?
  • What materials are needed, if any?
  • What part(s) of the topics are covered today?
  • What homework, if any, is assigned?
  • What goals am I trying to reach today?
  • How long will it take to get through the topic(s)?
  • Can I access and utilize the resources needed for the lesson at this time?

If you can answer those questions, you’re doing OK. Your lesson plan can be short or long, so long as it meets your objectives and fits within your deadlines.

Templates (Assignments, Tests, etc.)

Templates save time. One master template should be built for each type of work you’ll do with static fields where students write information, such as answers and names, and includes dynamic fields, such as directions, questions, images, visuals, and more, you can edit and swap out.

When templates are set up, every new assignment takes half the time to complete thanks to copy and paste. You’ll still need time to add content, but formatting was half the battle fought and won now.

When feasible, use or create a template. There are rare exceptions, but they’re quite uncommon. You can also template lesson plans and other documents as well.

By Year 1

By end of Year 1, you should have your bearings in the classroom and an idea of your teaching style. You’ll know which activities work, which activities don’t, and how you prefer to deliver lectures, tests, quizzes, and more. You may have also formed initial impressions, conscious or not, of many students as well.

At this point, focus on refinement and continuous improvement of teaching systems. Teaching combines many roles into one and you’ll want to develop yourself professionally. Advice from here only helps if you put it into practice and implement it.

Here are some questions I would consider at this timeframe, if I have not already:

  • Are there resources I haven’t considered yet that I should look into for teaching?
  • Is there a more efficient way to do [thing/process/method]?
  • Is there a more effective way to do [thing/process/method]?
  • Are students meeting behavior expectations?
    • If not, what can I do to make them behave better in class?
  • Can I still make curriculum deadlines?
  • How do I better plan for unexpected events?
  • How can I make this topic easier to learn / more accessible?
  • Is there a way of learning I haven’t explored yet?
  • Have I overlooked potential accommodations?
  • Are there other problems to solve?

For first-year teachers, your main goal is survival. After the first year, you hopefully start shifting from catch-up to routine. After meeting the essentials, you focus on self-reflection and growth. The questions above don’t need to wait until the end of year 1; they can start before that time as well.

A Note on Effectiveness vs Efficiency

You may think about effectiveness and efficiency during reflection. These are two terms used in similar contexts and fields, but they are not interchangeable. It doesn’t take a Master’s degree in Industrial Engineering or a Six Sigma black belt to tell you that. I’ll spare you a thesis and describe it in a few different ways:

  1. An effective but inefficient solution solves a problem, whereas an ineffective but efficient solution does not solve a problem.
  2. Once you learn that everything is a system, it gets easier to spot inefficiencies you missed before.
  3. From The Effective Executive (Drucker, 2006): “Efficiency is doing things right. Effectiveness is doing the right thing.”

Bibliography

  1. American Red Cross. (n.d.). Make a first aid kit. https://www.redcross.org/get-help/how-to-prepare-for-emergencies/anatomy-of-a-first-aid-kit.html?srsltid=AfmBOoq7k1YLTdpDwBd7lzvrKe-UBZpO760LggKdQ4dVkC0Xvdf09t

  2. American Red Cross. (2024, June 17). Is Your First Aid Kit Expired? https://www.redcross.org/take-a-class/resources/articles/do-first-aid-kits-expire

  3. Design Council. (2005). A study of the design process: The Double Diamond. https://www.designcouncil.org.uk/our-resources/the-double-diamond/
    • The webpage is titled “The Double Diamond” as of this writing.

  4. U.S. Department of Defense. (2025). DoD STOP THE BLEED®. https://www.dodstopthebleed.org/

  5. Drucker, P. F. (2006). The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done. HarperBusiness.
    • Originally published in 1966.

  6. MedlinePlus. (2023, September 15). Acetaminophen. U.S. National Library of Medicine. https://medlineplus.gov/druginfo/meds/a681004.html

  7. MedlinePlus. (2025, January 8). First aid kit. U.S. National Library of Medicine. https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/001958.htm

  8. U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). (2024, October 21). N95 respirators, surgical masks, face masks, and barrier face coverings. https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/personal-protective-equipment-infection-control/n95-respirators-surgical-masks-face-masks-and-barrier-face-coverings

  9. Wong, H. K., & Wong, R. T. (2018). The First Days of School: How to Be an Effective Teacher. Harry K. Wong Publications.

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