Schools across America are winding down. Kids are becoming restless. Teachers are finishing end of year tasks, grading and reflecting over the past year while juggling many other tasks. The promise of summer is near. Yet underneath all of this there is a little bit of anxiety of how best to end the school year.
Do you incorporate more lecture to fine tune the skills taught during the year? Do you add a fun project or two to keep the kids at bay? Do you schedule trips to get the kids out of the building? Or have movie and game days to keep your sanity? Many teachers struggle with just how to end the year on a positive note while keeping all parties – administration, students, and mental sanity – satisfied. Hopefully with this post, you find one (or more) strategies helpful as you end the school year!
- Reflection time! Reflection is an invaluable component of being an educator and on the same token an invaluable skill to teach our students. Perhaps in the final week of days of school you could offer opportunities to students to reflect over the school year. What units were their least and most favorite and why? Where could they improve? Where could you, as the teacher improve? What advice would they give next year students of your class? I recently did this with one of my classes and gained valuable feedback to consider for next year. There’s so much you could do with this like with reflection journals or allowing students to look through their portfolios for year, or if you prefer having a classroom discussion it’s up to you. This can prove a worthwhile task for students to bring in to the following year as well!
- Teach to your passion project! This tip obviously proves effective based on the leniency of your administration. I was fortunate enough to select my own course of study for my final unit and decided to integrate two of my own passions, literature (of course) and movies! In my final unit, my students and I read a play and a number of short stories alongside their film adaptations and for the final project for to film their own short films! My students and I had a blast and for our publishing party, I even made it a movie premiere of sorts complete with a red carpet, emcees, wait staff, snacks and features my students brilliant films. The winner(s) of the movie premiere also got certificates celebrating their achievement. It is one of my favorite units to teach since it is based on two mediums that I love and my students definitely appreciated it. However, if your administration is not as lenient, find ways to incorporate your personality into whatever curriculum you’re required to teach. Do you still have to continue test prep? Add texts you enjoy and teach the skills from there! Not the biggest fan of poetry? Add videos of young spoken word artists and host your own poetry slam! Nonfiction weighing you down? Have students become experts of their own chosen topics and teach the class! The opportunities are endless!
- Assign more project – based learning! As students are teeming with excitement over the summer, it’s natural for students to become a bit more chatty and restless this time of year. So why not build in opportunities for them to interact with their peers and have a meaningful collaborative activity in the process?! Like with my screenplay and performance unit, my students had to collaborate on creating the script, props, assign roles like the director and actors and record this within a 3-10 minutes parameter. A fellow math teacher colleague has his students plan a senior trip where they had to contact vendors and get costs under a set budget. In a previous social studies unit I’ve had my students visit museums and present artifacts to the class as if they were the curators. Again there are many possibilities with this dependent on your content area and is sure to bring a welcome experience for engagement in your classroom.
- Explore the outdoors! Students love being outside and as the weather gets warmer, the idea of being in a confined classroom may become less and less appealing so why not take your classroom outside! Research local attractions to take your students to that they may not otherwise visit. Or perhaps have a reading in a nearby park. Or, if all else fails, make a field day out of it. It may sound weird to say but I enjoy watching my students play and just be kids. I find it heartwarming and think kids should be given opportunities to just play and socialize. For many kids, this might be their only time to do so as more and more come from rough home life situations. However you structure it though should be a good time for all.
I hope the above suggestions have provided some clarity for meaningful activities to wrap up the school year. It is an exciting time of year and could be stressful if you let it. So take some time to plan your last few days thoughtfully or maybe even keep these in mind for planning next year if school is already done for you. Whatever you decide though should be authentic to you. Happy end of the school year, educators!
Very well said.. Thabks for the helpful tips. End of school year is somehow so stressful.. I will keep in mind.. 😊
Thank you, please do!
Thanks for these tips. Filing away for one day
Please do! I hope you find a strategy that works for you!
I totally agreewith these tips. School year ends is so stressful, I hope I had read this before.
There’s always for next year!
Children generally loves the idea of going out or exploring the outdoors. I think they need a time out from the walls of the classroom and enjoy the weather outside.
I agree, vitamin D is important for us all too.
Interesting content, I must say.
The last month of the school is really important and the way you put forward, it was really good.
Thank you!
I’ve had already gone through that, I wish I had read these tips before. Might be a really good help..
There’s always next year!
Luckily I don’t have to deal with the stress of the last month of school, but a few of these tips are certainly helpful for your own wellbeing, whatever job you do!
They definitely are!
Reflecting time is really important even for myself. There’s so much going on in life, but investing time to think about the good and bad sides of life really help to give me more insights about myself.
That is true. There is power in reflection!
These are good tips! My kids and I have been enjoying more outdoor activities after the school year ended last month.
Being in the sun does wonders for mental health and morale so it is definitely beneficial, to say the least!
The last month of school is so stressful. These are all great tips that would have come in handy a few weeks ago.
Keep them handy for next year!
Thank you so much for sharing your survival tips! We are always so tired by the time the end of the school year rolls in that we seem to loose track of everything! I will put these in place with my kids this year!
If you can, definitely try to do so!
I love the suggestion of exploring outdoors! Having a little bit of stress free time is really important after a long day!
It most certainly is. Our students are human beings too so it should be kept in mind.
The last month is always the craziest. These are great tips to hopefully not get too stressful!
Thank you!
These sound like great ideas, especially getting outdoors now that the weather is warm and kids are wanting to go outside more.
It is definitely the weather for it!
It’s so funny that other places are just starting with summer while on our end, it starts with school in a few weeks. I have to keep those ideas in mind for next summer.
Definitely! It’s funny how different regions work in terms of start and finish dates. Have a great school year!
No.2 is a great recommendation. It will not only develop self discovery but everyone will do it with passion. A wise project!
Thank you! That’s probably my fave too!
These are great suggestions and I am glad that we were able to finish this school year in a smoothly and in a stress free way.
Thank you!
My cousin is a teacher, and she always struggles with keeping her students attention as the year starts to wind down. I’m going to share these with her, maybe she’ll find a way to keep them interested.
Hopefully she does find these helpful! Thanks for sharing!
This is awesome. I don’t see a lot of posts for teachers when I’m just crawling around in the internet. Great ideas. I loved when my teachers let go a little and made that last month fun.
It should be a time to let loose, just a little!
Really good suggestion,your way of presenting is really nice.
Thank you for reading and commenting!