First 30 Days of School

It’s year… 13. And I’m grateful to have new staff in both schools prompting me to reflect and share more about the foundations of facilitation.

For myself, I used to keep a notebook with checklists for each phase of the school year, but I upgraded to using Trello in 2016. I have a “Run [Org. Name]” board with columns of checklists for daily, weekly, as needed, and then monthly tasks. I put instructions and year-by-year notes on each task card, and it’s helpful to share with others taking on organization stewardship roles.

Figuring out how to translate this checklist system into something simultaneously lighter and more comprehensive for new facilitators has been a puzzle I’ve played with over the past few years, and while I’m feeling good about making progress, I don’t have a version I’m ready to share yet. I did decide to put some of my back-to-school prep checklist on the covers of the zine I made in the week before restarting the Atlanta school this year.

Inside, I took notes on the things I found myself saying to new facilitators that week. These are mostly reminders, checks on default assumptions that get in the way of conscious youthwork, and recommendations of resources that have served me well over the years.

Not on my checklist covers or any internal page of the zine is an explanation of the way I prep the physical space for the kids’ first day. I’m so used to doing that decorating work that I forgot it’s a key prep task I do and something I have a deliberate strategy for. But it is! And it’s impactful in supporting my expectation-setting over the first 3 weeks of school, a crucial practice for any gathering space.

For the week before school, alongside whatever coordination prep work I’m doing with my team, I’m cleaning and stocking the space (or double checking the cleaning and stocking work I did at the end of the previous year). And the day before school is back in session for the year, I usually try to take off and do something fun. There’s a day, though, right before that, where I set notes, reminders, and invitations around the space. It’s my ritual to mark the end of my back-to-school prep season, and it’s satisfying. It’ll also need to be the topic of it’s own zine, because I’m out of pages in this one.