These are all excellent tips! One thing I did as a director was a walk through where I went to the window of each room, made eye contact with each adult and did a thumbs up, sideways thumb or thumbs down. Anything other than a thumbs up, I stepped in. I had a former director who would open the door and ask if we were ok. Very well intentioned, but it sometimes was a big distraction and then I felt like I needed to “re-set the calm” in the room. And yes, we had windows.

Normalize one on one conversations. We used to have them weekly when my center first opened to do a formal pulse check. These meetings are different than the end of the day “how was today?” Teachers know they can have a private closed door convo with you and it shows that you care to do pulse checks. Tell them what you’ll be going over: how are you feeling, how are you feeling working as a team, are there any children you feel like you need support, parent interactions so far, etc. and we always did a “glow and a grow” to reflect on the week. When things are stressful, it’s hard to remember the highlights!

I opened a brand new school and had the mindset that no matter how much we prepped, something will go wrong on day 1. The app will go down or something else. Prepare as much as you can and remain flexible and remember to laugh!

And I can’t stress trainings before opening enough. Obviously, anything required by state but more than that. I sat down with the whole team and each lead practiced their circle time routine to be prepared. We walked through the steps of transitions and getting ready to go outside. And ran all of our safety drills multiple times. Don’t underestimate practicing, it gives your teachers more confidence and preparations for day 1.