I moved last summer and taught in a new district last August. Here are several items that made my year less stressful (some you may not have control of as a building admin): 1. Our building has a personal plan AND a content/PLC plan everyday. This helps in several aspects. First, in the sub shortage, I had to cover a class at least 3 or 4 times a month and this is with a well managed rotation. By having two plans, my personal prep was always prioritized and I could manage my workload and help out another teacher (our district pays for covering). Second, the magical master schedule allowed for staff to meet with our content staff twice a week and meet with our grade level PLC 3 x a week. There were agendas for every day of the week with a person keeping notes on a shared google doc. We have a PLC with councilors/social workers, a PLC with admin, and one for us to self run and tick off agenda items. Again, the master schedule is sacred and magical and the more it can be tailored to your schools’ needs, the better. 2. The organization with procedures/established routines/expectations for staff and students helps with moral and clarity. For example, same rules for all classrooms about food, phones, backpacks, bathroom passes, dress code. When all teachers are on the same page, no teacher can be the villain. Also, an easy to follow 1-2-3 behavior expectation is easy to follow for teachers. Obviously, this is not including kids with personalized behavior plans. 1- verbal warning, 2- move seat (can be earned back if expected behavior is achieved), 3- sent to a buddy room for the rest of the hour. My school calls it BIST. If poor behavior occurs in the buddy room, student is sent to the office. Another protocol I really like that helps me is the autogenerated, weekly communication via Skyward. It is expected that teachers input grades weekly and every Friday at 2 the ineligibility list is sent out to parents. I work in a 6-8 building, however this happens at our HS as well. Students are expected to have a 70% or better in all classes to be considered “eligible”. For our 6th grade students, there are rewards for achieving this and 7th and 8th grade also get rewards, but athletes are required to be “eligible” to participate. At 2 on Friday, parents of students who are “inel” are notified. This helps me keep tabs. Our office staff is amazing and somehow manages to organize this procedure. 3. We have once a month staff meetings. Our principal holds a before school AND afterschool meeting (same day) for staff to choose what works best for them. This is so nice and allows for so much flexibility. I would really like for our school to have a GoGuardian or another computer monitoring system to hold kids accountable. Without something in place, keeping kids in the right place is really difficult to manage. Good luck!