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Many of your students may already be checked out for the year. That is why it is important for us to not follow suit and check out along with them. I’m entering the last 3 weeks of school and I know some of you may have more than that and some of you may have less. Regardless of how many days until summer, do your best to stay checked in until the last day of school.
When you check out, your students know it. Poor behaviors will ramp up even more, attention will be lacking, and disrespect will most likely ensue. The end of the year brings with it assessments and, hopefully, some fun. We want our students to show us what they know on these assessments and they won’t give it their all if you don’t show you care about it. Now, I do think that there is too much testing, but some testing is necessary to monitor student growth throughout the year. Read more about that in this post: Using Data Effectively. Now let’s move on to how we can stay checked in until the last day.
1. Have an assessment incentive.– Whatever assessments students take can be incentivized to help students want to perform their best. We do an online assessment three times a year at our school and students will be rewarded based on if they met or surpassed their yearly goal. I like this idea because then students are not in competition with each other. Their competition is with their own self. The incentives don’t have to cost a lot either. It could be a water activity day, pie the teacher in the face, get a coupon for a summer activity (maybe a local business would donate), ice cream treats, etc.
2. Issue a challenge.– Continue with digital adaptive programs for as long as students have their devices. With that, issue a challenge. We use i-Ready in our district, so a challenge could be to pass so many lessons in a certain time period with an 80% or higher. I have seen some really cute tracker ideas for this. For instance, i-Ready for Popcorn from The TLC Teacher on Teachers Pay Teachers.The challenge you issue can be related to anything you feel would benefit your class. It could be a reading challenge, math challenge, or a behavior challenge.
3. Keep your routine as normal as possible.– I know there will be schedule changes during this time of year, but I do what I can to keep the class’s routine the same as it has been all year. This helps students to feel calmer and behave better because they know what is expected of them.
4. Try to wait to change anything in your classroom as long as you can.– I know that you will have to take down some things to accomodate testing, but don’t do anything more than that. This is similar to number 3. Seeing that the end is near could lead some students to act out more, especially students worried about what summer will bring for them. While we hope all students have a fun summer, the reality is not all do. There are other things you can do to get ready for the end of the year before tackling breaking down your classroom. Read more about in my post: 5 Tips for Getting Organized for the Next School Year.
5. Continue to plan.– Your planning may look a little different, but still have plans for each day. I tell you what, my daughter is sick of watching movies. She doesn’t even want to go to school because she isn’t doing anything in her classes. I don’t blame her. She is in high school, but teachers of all grade levels should still have something brain stimulating for students to do up until the last day. I don’t think it is bad to watch a movie, but not every day for 3 weeks. Take this time to plan all the fun activities that you wanted to do, but couldn’t, during the rest of the year. Check out this post for some ideas: 5 Awesome Activities for an Unforgettable End to the Year!
6. Continue to hold up your classroom/school expectations.– Don’t let students get away with not following classroom/school expectations. No matter how small! Like the saying goes, You give them an inch and they’ll take a mile. Keep up whatever consequences are in place for when a student makes a poor choice. It doesn’t mean you and your class can’t have some fun, just make sure you share the expectations in advance for whatever you have planned. This should keep most students in check until the last day of school. I know you’re tired, but your days will be easier leading up to the last day by doing this.
The end of the year is stressful enough. Let’s do what we can to prevent added stress by staying checked in until the last day. Hang in there, you’re almost there! We’ll get through it together!
