16 Questions to Ask At Your New School

New School This Year?

Whether you are new to the profession or a veteran teacher, your first year in a new school can be overwhelming.

Every school operates differently. At some schools you might be presented with a new staff orientation complete with Staff Handbook and overwhelming information. At others, you might be left standing there wondering where the nearest adult restroom is located. And if you’re new to the profession, chances are you aren’t sure what questions you should be asking.

As a teacher in a new school, here are 16 things you need to ask about before the school year begins:

1) Building Layout
What areas are for teachers? What areas are for students? Are certain grade levels contained to different locations? What restrooms are my students expected to use? Where can I get supplies? Where is the book room?

2) Teacher Mailbox
Where are the teacher mailboxes located? Are they used regularly? How frequently am I expected to check my mailbox?

3) Open House
Most schools schedule their fall open house, in the spring. Ask when, where, what’s expected of you, and the structure. Should you prepare a presentation? Or is the format a free flow and parents just walk through?

4) First Day Expectations
Do you get your students all to yourself on the first day? Or is every teacher expected to cover school-wide rules and procedures? Where are you expected to meet your students? Is there a procedure in place for the end of the day dismissal?

5) School-Wide Announcements
Some schools have announcements during the first 5 minutes of school, or the last 5 minutes of the day. Either way, you will want to know since it will impact your teaching time.

7) Bell Schedule
Ask when you will be provided with the bell schedule. You need to know when classes begin, end, when lunch and your prep time will be.

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8) Lunch
What is the routine for student lunches? Do you escort them to the cafeteria? Do they eat in your classroom? Are you allowed to issue lunch detentions?

9) Emergency Drills
Ask where you can find the written procedures for school emergencies. Ask how often fire, lockdown, earthquake, & evacuation drills will occur and when.

10) Parent-Teacher Conferences
Are you expected to schedule your conferences? Or do parents come at their convenience and it’s first come and first serve? Will conferences take place in your classroom or somewhere else? Are you expected to have student lead-conferences? Are you expected to report to your administration how many conferences you conduct?

11) Curriculum
Where can you obtain the curriculum you need? Who do you contact if you don’t have enough? How do students check out textbooks?

12) Duty Roster
At many schools teachers are assigned to rotating duty stations. Find out when this duty roster will be issued so you can put it on your calendar. Be sure to ask what the expectations are for each duty assigned.

13) Grades
Now a days most districts have digital grade-books, where parents can log in and view their child’s grades at any time. Many policies will come from the district and your negotiated agreement. But there might be different expectations, or none at all, at your school. Know how often you are required to update your grade-book.

14) Assemblies
How often does your school have assemblies? Are they already scheduled? When are they? Where are you expected to sit with your students? What is the expectation if the assembly is during your prep period?

15) Contacting your Administrator
If you have questions, concerns or need assistance, what procedure does your administrator prefer?

16) Evaluations
Again, this is probably dictated by the district. But if you have more than one administrator in your building, you will want to find out which one is your evaluator and expectations they have about lesson plans, goal setting, etc.

Obviously there is a lot to learn when you go to a new school. This list will at least get you basic information so you can confidently plan and start your first weeks of school.

Other items to ask about as the school year gets underway:
- Picture Day
- Early Out schedules
- Testing schedules
- Committees
- IEP/504/Intervention Meeting schedules
- Staff Meeting schedules
- PLC Meeting schedules & expectations
​


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I’m Hillary Midgley, and I help teachers move from classroom chaos to streamlined success with no-frills systems that make managing student work easy. New here? Start with the Manage Student Work ebook.