I finally have a seating chart 😂
It took me a week to finally get it written down!
We’ve been back to school for seven days now.
One of the first decisions a teacher makes on the first day of school: seating charts (or lack thereof).
I always like to let students sit where they want (unless they ruin it … in which case I’ll impose a seating chart with fewer distractions to keep them focused).
The funny part? They find “their spot” … and they keep the same seat — even if they’re allowed to sit wherever they want! (They do this at lunch, too …)
So, after a few days, I asked: “Raise your hand if you’ve stayed in the same seat since the first day of class.” Pretty much every hand went up.
So I created a seating chart … just to make taking attendance easier. But with distractions and busy classes, it took me a week to finally get it done!
How do you handle seating charts … or classroom rules … or building student relationships … or other things we do during back to school?
In our Back to School channel in the DTT online community, we’ve been discussing these back to school procedures and preferences. Jump in to read what others have written — and add your own tips!
Today’s newsletter is PACKED with great stuff that will help you get up to speed in your classroom at the beginning of the year.
Inside:
📺 Virtual Back to School Event: Complete 180 Conference
👀 DTT Digest: 4 resources worth checking out
👥 Community: The FREE lesson library inside our community
🎯 Quick Teaching Strategy: How “triage feedback” can save you time
💡 The Big Idea: REALLY get to know your students with interest surveys
😄 Smile of the day: Ummm … classroom, please
👋 How we can help
📺 Virtual Back to School Event: Complete 180 Conference
Join me in the Complete 180 Conference in August!
Back to school is a time to come back with confidence … to come up with a solid plan … to build momentum for the school year.
That’s what the virtual Complete 180 Conference is all about!
I’m partnering with Daryl Williams Jr. to put on this virtual event on August 23-25, 2026!
You can join the opening night live session for free, but with a General Experience ticket, you’ll get:
Access to 3 days of live sessions
Leadership + teacher workshops
Nightly keynotes
Conference workbook
Access to the IMPACT Community
Limited replay access (7 days)
The VIP Experience adds lifetime access to replays and an exclusive post-conference implementation session with me and Daryl.
How to register:
Head to the conference registration page.
Choose “Save My Seat” and enter your contact details.
Click “Save Your Seat.” That’ll sign you up for the free ticket.
Next, you’ll be able to add a paid General or VIP ticket if you’d like.
FYI: You’ll get a confirmation text message to let you know you’re in. We send those automated text messages between 8am and 8pm U.S. Eastern time, so if you don’t get it immediately, it’ll be coming soon!
👀 DTT Digest
4 teaching resources worth checking out today
🔵 Back to school SchoolAI spaces — SchoolAI offers pre-built and customizable "Spaces" designed for back-to-school, including icebreakers like Class Check-In, Bellringers, and orientation hubs.
🐿️ Watch Frustrated Squirrels Go Nuts! — In this engaging lesson from PBS Learning Media one researcher wants to know, could there be an evolutionary benefit to losing your cool?
👀 Have you seen these Google Docs features?— Sometimes the most useful features are sitting right in front of us. Check out this list of new-ish Google Docs tools that might save you some time today.
ICYMI 💎 Create Croc charms — This fun template from FigJam is designed for many uses in any subject areas. Students decorate a pair of crocs by making charms to represent key ideas from their learning. Enhance any warm up or exit ticket!
👥 FROM THE COMMUNITY 👥
Did you know we have a Lesson Library inside the DTT Community?
Did you know we have a Lesson Library inside the DTT Community?
The Lesson Library is a space where members submit lessons, tools, and ideas they've created and tried in their own classrooms. After we check them out, the lessons and resources go up on the shelf for anyone to grab. No explanation needed, just real stuff from actual teachers in our community, ready to use.
Back to School season is the perfect time to browse around the library! It's a great place to look if you need some new ideas, or just want to see what teachers like you are creating. A few things on the shelf right now:
Deb White had 150 middle schoolers vibe code their own apps. Now they're presenting to 1,000 students at a tech conference.
Ariella Pardo built out a full first-week plan for Grade 7–8, including routines, icebreakers, and all.
Rimmey has students pitch a persuasive GoFundMe campaign as a mastery check.
Kelly Davis's classes turned The Giver into stop motion films using Canva only, no Apple products needed.
You can join the free DTT Community to read ideas like this, connect with other educators, discuss, and share ideas of your own.
🎯 QUICK TEACHING STRATEGY 🎯
🚑 How “triage feedback” can save you time
When you have LOTS of students — and there’s only one of you, providing feedback to everyone can be a chore.
It takes LOTS of time … and when it seems like students don’t even read it, it makes you wonder: “Why am I even doing this?”
That’s where “triage feedback” can help.
Scan over a student’s work.
Identify one or two concepts they could improve on.
Mark some examples and write a quick note.
Move on to the next student’s paper.
It’s triage like they do in a hospital. If they can’t treat everyone, they treat the most urgent cases first.
The benefit of triage feedback? Students don’t get overwhelmed with lots of marks on a page. (And you get less overwhelmed with the time it takes to provide feedback!)
ALTERNATIVE: Revise student work with screencasts — Sometimes, we can explain what we mean to say better and faster through talking rather than writing. Record your screen with a tool like Screencastify or Loom. Tell the student what you need to tell them. End the recording and provide a link to the student.
💡 THE BIG IDEA 💡
Deep dive: REALLY get to know your students
Image created with Google Gemini
In those first days back to school, so many new faces walk through your classroom door.
Spending some time getting to know those students in week one is a great investment that pays serious dividends all year long. A fantastic place to start? Student interest surveys.
Ask students about their interests. Their lives. Their families. You’ll learn a lot—and it’ll give you endless material for quick, natural follow-up questions in the hallway later on.
You’ll also notice class-wide trends that might totally surprise you! You might find that a particular class of sophomores is deeply into a specific video game. Or that this year’s fourth grade class is obsessed with local wildlife compared to previous years.
You’ll get real-time insights you can use while teaching. Slipping a student interest into an example or analogy makes learning feel instantly relevant. Plus, students will know you were actually paying attention.
The most important part? Read the surveys—and then actually use the results! Otherwise, it looks like busywork, and that’s a massive missed opportunity.
Give your students an interest survey tomorrow!
🛠️ Tools to use:
Google Forms (or Microsoft Forms): Still the undisputed champions for digital survey collection. You can easily review, sort, and aggregate all your results in a spreadsheet.
Paper Surveys: There is zero shame in using paper! If tech access is spotty during those crazy first days, a quick pencil-and-paper survey gets the job done just as well. Check out this comic book style example shared by Dustin Rimmey on his blog.
🤖 Work smarter, not harder:
AI can help with the process. Ask an AI assistant like ChatGPT or Google Gemini for questions. You can even upload your spreadsheet of results and as AI to analyze them to summarize and provide insights. (Tip: Make a copy of the spreadsheet and remove student names before submitting to the AI assistant to protect privacy.)
Ready to try it? Grab everything you need including a Google Forms template and copy/paste AI prompts you use (and modify) to help you create your surveys — and get AI analysis of the results.
😄 Smile of the day
Yep. Except when I give a Back To School PD presentation… right? Right?
Source: Bored Teachers (yes, redundant but still giving credit!)
👋 How we can help
There are even more ways I can support you in the important work you do in education:
Read one of my six books about meaningful teaching with tech.
Take one of our online courses about practical and popular topics in education.
Bring me to your school, district or event to speak. I love working with educators!
