This is Part 4 of a four-part series on getting ready for the new school year: Reset & Reflect, Digital Cleanup & Setup, Building Routines That Stick, and Countdown to Day One.

You’ve reflected, cleaned up your digital tools, and mapped out your routines. Now it’s the week before or two weeks before — time to make sure everything actually works when real students show up.

Test everything like a student would

Don’t trust that a tool “should” work — check it:

• Log in to each platform using a test/student account, not your teacher account.
• Confirm rosters are correct and students can actually access what they need.
• Test on the device type most of your students will actually use (phone, Chromebook, shared computer) — not just your laptop.

Prep your first-week communication

Families are paying attention in week one more than almost any other time of year. Send home (or post) a short, plain-language rundown:

• What platforms you’ll use and why
• How families can check in on progress
• One clear way to reach you with questions

Keep it short. A one-page overview gets read; a five-page tech manual doesn’t.

Build your “day one” tech backup plan

Something will glitch on the first day — a login server, a projector, a Wi-Fi hiccup. Decide now what you’ll do when it does:

• Have a no-tech version of your first activity ready to go.
• Know who to call for IT help and have that number handy, not buried in an email somewhere.
• Give yourself permission to skip the tech entirely on day one if needed — relationships matter more than platforms in the first 48 hours.

The night before

Do one last walkthrough: rosters loaded, logins tested, one backup plan ready, and your “tech home base” doc bookmarked. Then close the laptop. You’ve done the prep — the rest is showing up and adjusting as you go.

That’s the series. Reflect, clean up, build routines, then test and communicate. Do those four things in July and August, and September takes care of a lot of itself.

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This is the final post in a four-part series on getting ready for the new school year. Catch up on the whole series: Part 1: Reset & Reflect · Part 2: Digital Cleanup & Setup · Part 3: Building Routines That Stick · Part 4: Countdown to Day One.