In another life, I taught science in both private and public schools. New Co-op instructors can find organizing for a new term daunting. Start with the space. I teach in my basement. Before I taught at the library, in our Church’s CCD classroom, and in school classrooms. If you teach outside your home, do an inventory of your teaching space. I taught in the library’s MakerSpace. The room had a sink, counters, tables, chairs, and outlets. I organized supplies into bins and caddies for class. There was a portable whiteboard I used. Our basement has one sink, several tables, chairs, and whiteboards. (My husband, Rob, wanted two large whiteboards for math problems—especially in Physics. I use a portable whiteboard most of the time.) If you don’t have a sink, bring jugs of water and a bucket for waste for lab. In any case, see what amenities your space has—like a rest room nearby!
Set up Google Classroom. I post everything. You can set deadlines and keep track of grades. You can load documents from Drive and links from the internet. I like to copy a link or document for a lab into Classroom in case a child is absent or loses the document. I load slideshows into Classroom and publish homework, too.
Plan the program. You don’t need to organize the entire year! Plan for the first class. Here and here are Day One for Chemistry. Guess what? Day One can take two or three classes. I want to have a plan for the miscellaneous topics I cover initially: lab safety, lab equipment, syllabus, assignments, textbooks, etc. What textbook are you using? When is class?
Lastly, plan the first lab. Here is Apple Mummies—an excellent first lab to teach experimental design. You can review safety, remind kids to wear safety glasses, introduce spreadsheets, etc. Below are pix and here is a post about our basement classroom. You can do this!
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