If hired today, what would you do first?

• A. Dive into the curriculum.
• B. Collaborate with teammates.
• C. Prepare my classroom for the first day of school.
• D. Review school policies.

Answer: (A)

Understanding what students are expected to learn and how their learning will be measured should come first. Diving into the curriculum lets you review grade-level standards, learning objectives, and the sequence of topics. This creates a clear target for your early lessons, helps you plan coherent activities that build toward those outcomes, and shows you what evidence of mastery you’ll need to gather from the start. Once you have that instructional direction, other important tasks—collaborating with teammates to align plans, setting up the classroom, and reviewing school policies—become more purposeful. You can collaborate with a shared goal in mind, arrange materials and routines to support the planned lessons, and navigate procedures with a concrete context. So starting with the curriculum demonstrates readiness to set a focused, targeted beginning that guides everything else you do.