Edutopia contributor and educator Josh Stock has provided peers with a few ways to get students excited and ready for the school year after the long summer break.

Says Stock of his tips, "After a few years of frustration at the time wasted getting [students]psyched for school, I came up with a plan to get the kids so excited that they'll be breaking down the doors to start class."

He says the first thing he does that helps him to both build a connection with his students and increase the level of energy around the first day is create podcasts for students to listen to, where they can learn about their teacher over the summer.

Students in his class would be provided with flyers with the podcast information on it and "[t]hrough this medium, the teachers introduce themselves and explain why they love teaching. The kids love hearing their teachers' voices and quickly learn that they'll be working with adults who are energetic and excited to work with them," he said.

On that same note of communicating with future students throughout the summer, Stock recommends creating a welcome website page that not only introduces students to the class materials they will be using, but also focuses on fun student experiences. This way, students will develop an excitement to learn and recognize the teacher's excitement too.

He also suggests using snail mail to reach students, as he says "[t]here's just something special about opening the mailbox to find something waiting for you with your name on it. A week or two before the school year begins, we mail a letter to all students telling them how excited we are for them to join us in August."

As the school year gets closer, Stock recommends keeping the momentum of communication going with an e-mail the day before school starts letting them know how excited you are.

"I send out an email reminding each student how exciting that first day is going to be. I keep it short and to the point. By this time, most of the students have met me, watched or listened to intros to all of the teachers through the website, and toured the school. When they get to school the next day, they're bursting through the doors ready to tackle the school year."

Read Stock's full list of tips here and comment with your thoughts below.

Article by Nicole Gorman, Education World Contributor