10 Back to School Learning Station Ideas for Middle and High School

For several years now, teachers have joined the mission to intentionally create a first day and first week of school that are reflective of the kind of classroom culture and environment that they want to create for the whole school year. Gone are the days of reading the syllabus aloud to students and droning on for days at a time. And one of the most popular ideas that has grown to replace these teacher-centered practices is the use of back to school STATIONS. It’s been a cornerstone lesson in my First Ten Days of School practice for the last decade.

Stations as an instructional strategy is relatively straightforward. A certain number of tasks that take a similar amount of time to complete are predetermined by the teacher and become the “stations”. Then, students are broken up into the same number of groups as there are stations. Using a timer, students work at their assigned station for the allotted time, then with the timer, switch to the next station for the next task. This is a great way to begin the process of teaching your routines around this instructional strategy -- trust me, your October self will thank you for starting routine practice early and often!

With back to school season always having a slew of odd ball housekeeping tasks to accomplish, stations is a great way to keep the pace of class moving, get students out of their seats, and begin the process of getting to know each other based on the small group they’re moving.

Syllabus & Questions for My Teacher

After making the switch from a paper to a digital syllabus, I’ve been able to navigate getting the important information it includes in front of both students and parents. With a digital syllabus, I can “assign” looking through it the night before stations, and then, in this station, ask students to revisit the syllabus and on an index card, leave questions and comments for me at the station that I can answer FAQ style in upcoming days. You could also give the students at this station a syllabus “quiz” in the style of true/false or multiple choice.

A copy of my digital syllabus template is available inside my exclusive course for teachers: The First 10 Days: The Complete Back to School Toolkit.

Establish a “Brave Space”

Station time is also a wonderful opportunity to set up intentional experiences for students to see and participate in your classroom expectations. One simple, yet powerful, station idea is to use a section of your room close to a whiteboard (using my FAVE markers) or giant post-it, and write on the board BRAVE SPACE. Explain in the directions for students to write around the word with definitions and examples of what a “Brave Space” should look and feel like in the classroom. I make sure to take a picture of each class period’s answers to use later for debriefing and adding to my digital syllabus under my “Expectations” tab.

FAQ QR Code Classroom Management System

Another way to use your stations activity is to introduce your students to various functional spaces in your classroom and give them a chance to be oriented to how they work, I speak about this at length in episode 58 of the Brave New Teaching podcast as we discuss the importance of functional classroom decor. For me, one of the most important spaces in my room is my FAQ QR Station. This is the place in my room where students come to get their frequently asked questions answered…by a video, not by me. Because we can answer questions about late homework, going to the bathroom, and other policies for only so long before we want to pull our hair out, right? So instead of answering these questions again and again (in October and November, especially), the QR code does all the work for me! This is how I prioritize functional classroom design over splurging at the Target Dollar Spot all summer long..

All About Me Student Survey

At the start of the school year, there’s quite a bit of information that I want to know about my students. Some I want to learn through conversation, but much of it I want to have to refer back to as the year progresses and I see where students are finding strength and struggle. I designed an All About Me Student Survey using Google Forms that I’ve used for years and I use this station to give students time to fill it out rather than making it “homework”.

Student-Created Classroom Decor

Typically each year I try to make one of my stations artsy crafty. The quick little project is usually connected somehow to one or more of the following: my classroom theme, something bookish and Englishy, something connected to authors we’ll study, etc. I love doing these things, but don’t have a lot of original ideas of my own, so I scour the internet for ideas! Here are a few things I’ve done in the past that have been fun and great for a quick station:

Blackout poetry on a random dictionary page: cut into triangles and closepin them to twine for a classroom banner
Contributions to a door decoration
This wreath but with different clipart
A collaborative poster of different sorts

Six Word Memoir

These can be used ANY time of year, but at the beginning of the year, six word memoirs serve as a quick and easy way to get to know students AND see how their writing brains work. Narrowing down their life story to only six words offers powerful insight into how they see themselves and how they creatively and critically approach the writing process. Since the station time might be too short to fully think this out, you might ask for a draft at this station and revisit them for a final revision later in the week.

Create a name plate/Name voice recording

Learning student names is a paramount priority when beginning the school year, but also something that can be very boing for other students to watch us struggle through. Instead of going through the attendance roster every day trying to learn names, use a station to have students create name places and even record a sound bite of their accurate name pronunciation! I show you how to easily do this in this blog post. All you’ll need for the station is paper and markers for the name plate and a few chrome books with tabs open to Vocaroo.com.

Classroom Library Tour

If you are an ELA teacher, another classroom space that you most likely need to share with your students is your classroom library. If you have a system for checkout and returns, if you have a routine associated with first chapter Friday, or just generally want students to begin perusing teh books on your shelves, make this an exploratory station! My classroom library is on a rolling cart: it’s a rotating “best of the best” system and the majority of my books are housed on a database that students access through QR code. Using this as a station during back to school give students a chance to explore that without a time-consuming overview from me and puts the ownership and focus back on the students as they begin that exploration on their own.

Take What You Need Station

Another classroom space that matters to me in the classroom is my Take What You Need station. This is an area by the front of the room that houses all of the little odds and ends of things that students are always asking for: breath mints, hand lotion, dry shampoo, gold star stickers, and more. I keep some coloring pages for students who need time to unwind when they’re feeling stressed, blank note cars to write a hand-written note to a friend, and more rotating goodies as needed.

Goal Setting

Fresh starts with a new semester are the perfect time for students to do some serious and some light hearted goal setting. I like using these one-pager templates as a station where students can do fun goal setting and add to the page as the semester continues. I have them choose three sections that are together, record the date, and share the goal. They can illustrate them as they like! As we move through the year, we revisit this template and add more and reflect on the things written at earlier stages in the semester.

I hope this year, back to school learning stations hit the trifecta for you: establishing routines, building relationships, and setting the bar for rigor. I’d love to take you through my full first ten days of school in my course when you’re ready. I’ve got every lesson, the philosophy behind each step, and a digital drop down lesson planning calendar all inside just waiting for you! Take a peek inside right here…

Happy back to school, everyone!