How I Survive the First Week of Spanish Class Without Losing My Mind

The first week of school is chaos. Not bad chaos. Just... chaos.
📋 You have new schedules to memorize. 

📋 Seating charts to figure out. (Which students can't be near each other?)

📋 Students asking where to sit. (How do you tell them easily?)

📋 Students asking if they need a pencil. (Can they write in pen?)

📋 Students asking if they can go to the bathroom 3 minutes into class. (When will you let them go to the bathroom? What's the routine)

📋 And somewhere in there, you're supposed to remember 150 names and teach Spanish. (It's so many names!)

It's a lot. Which is exactly why I've stopped trying to make the first week perfect.

After years of teaching middle and high school Spanish, I've realized something:
👉 The first week of school is not the week to overcomplicate things.

My goal isn't to wow students with the most creative lesson I've ever made. My goal is to create a classroom that feels calm, predictable, and safe.

So these are the three things I prioritize every single year:

1. Routines over perfection

The first week isn't about squeezing in every amazing activity you've ever saved on Pinterest.

It's about helping students know:

👉 How do they enter the room?
👉 Where do they sit?
👉 How do we transition between activities?
👉 What does participation look like?

I want students walking into my classroom on Day 5 feeling like "Okay. I know how this class works."

Because structure builds confidence. For students and for teachers too.

I'd much rather have a slightly less exciting lesson with clear routines than an elaborate activity that leaves everyone confused.

2. Structure over novelty

I know social media makes it seem like every lesson needs to be groundbreaking. I do not subscribe to this philosophy.

The first week of school is already full of novelty. New teachers. New classmates. New schedules. New expectations.

Students don't need me reinventing the wheel on top of all of that. They need consistency. They need lessons that follow a predictable rhythm.

They need to know - first we do this. Then we do this. Then we practice. Then we wrap up.

Predictability isn't boring. Predictability lowers stress.

I don't want to spend the first week of school frantically creating lessons from scratch while simultaneously trying to remember if José sits next to Joseph or Jordan.

3. Calm over chaos

When I first started teaching, I thought a good first week meant jumping right into Spanish.

We'll teach routines as we go. Students will figure it out. I'll correct things when they come up. 🙃

And technically... you can do that. But I've found it's much easier to spend time upfront teaching exactly what I want. I explicitly teach:

• how to enter the classroom (hint: calmly)
• where to find materials (it's obvious to me, but I need it to be obvious to everyone)
• how to participate in partner speaking activities (we don't shout at our partner)
• what to do when they finish early (hint: it's NOT carry on a conversation with anyone and everyone around us)
• how to transition between activities (literally how to put your notebook away)

Sometimes that means spending 10 minutes teaching students how to do a partner activity that will only take 4 minutes. It's worth it.

Because by October, it's actually a 4-minute activity. Students know what to do. I don't have to repeat directions three times. The room feels calmer. And I get to spend more time teaching Spanish instead of managing confusion.

The first week of school is an investment. A few extra minutes spent building routines now leads to less chaos later.

Which is important because teaching Spanish should be sustainable. I don't want to spend my evenings re-explaining procedures or redesigning lessons because something didn't work.

I want lessons students understand. I want routines everyone knows. I want a classroom that feels organized, predictable, and calm.

That's also why I don't want to spend the first week building lessons from scratch. I want to use lessons I trust so I can focus on the people in front of me.

If you don't want to spend the first week of school creating lessons from scratch...

🙌 I made the first week of Spanish 1, 2, and 3 available for free.

Each download includes ready-to-teach lessons exactly how I'd use them in my own classroom. You'll be able to see:
💙 How I structure lessons
💙 The pacing I use
💙 The types of activities I include
💙 What I prioritize during the first week of school

Download the first week here:
👉 Spanish 1
👉 Spanish 2
👉 Spanish 3

Future you, standing in front of a room full of students in August (or September), will probably be very happy you did. 😄