The end of the school year can be a really stressful time. Many teachers become beyond “burned out” and can barely hang on, which is why I wanted to share my top 5 favorite tips for the end of the school year.
It’s important to make sure you find ways to save both your time and sanity. My top tip is to have your students help you with the end of the year clean up. After the testing is all done and the standards have been taught, rather than wasting time watching a movie, enlist your students to be helpers. I promise your students will love helping out and it will be a great way for students to get their energy out (since we all know that summer fever is very real and makes it hard on teachers). Most of these tasks, I would recommend doing on the last 1-2 day(s) of school.
My students always love helping to complete these tasks and they get them done quickly.
You can download and print this list by CLICKING HERE.
I think it’s really important to help our students feel happy and appreciated at school. Having positive interactions at school can impact a student’s whole life and can help them always enjoy learning. For this reason, I try to make the end of the year special by giving each student an individualized award (all positive awards). This has become a tradition in my classroom and my students always love award day. You may like this idea but may feel a little bit overwhelmed trying to think of different awards for each student and preparing the materials for the “awards ceremony” but don’t fret, I’ve got you covered.
I have created an awards ceremony pack which makes it easy for you to have your own awards ceremony for your class without feeling overwhelmed, especially if you’re already feeling burned out.
Here’s what’s included in the awards ceremony pack.
- Teacher Award List: There are 80+ award ideas included. Quickly assign an award to each student.
- Student Certificate: This is a certificate to give to students during your award ceremony.
- Awards Ceremony Presentation Slideshow: Make the ceremony special by using this great slideshow as you present the awards.
- Student Medal: These are meant to be assembled with a ribbon attached to the top. Students can be awarded a medal along with their certificate during the ceremony.
Look below to see what this award ceremony pack looks like or CLICK HERE to view the whole product description.
Always print a few “paper mini yearbook” alternatives for students that may not have purchased a yearbook. Students can either have a really great day and feel included or really bummed for not having their own yearbook. Do everything you can to make all your students feel happy and included. There are lots of great options for a printable paper mini yearbook on Teachers Pay Teachers.
The end of the year can be such a crazy time. My first year, I was mad at myself for forgetting to have my students sign my yearbook before releasing them for the schoolwide yearbook signing (don’t make the same mistake as me haha). Because it can be such a crazy day, I highly recommend pre-typing a personalized yearbook message for all your students. This can help your students feel special and will be a great memory for them for years to come. I like to print my typed out message on sticker labels so they are easy to put in each student’s yearbook. I have seen some teachers type a generic message and print on stickers, but I think it is so much more meaningful to have a personalized message.
I use Avery labels since they are super easy to make and print. If you go to Avery’s website you can find the template for the size of labels you have and edit each label with a personalized message. It doesn’t take very long and goes faster to type vs. writing out the message. You can download the labels as a PDF when you’re finished and print them on your labels and you’re all set for yearbook signing.
Many schools require student information to be passed on to the next teacher. This may look differently for each school, but I think some of the most vital information (especially in k-2 classrooms) is how students are performing with reading. This can help new teachers have a quick idea of how their class is when they start out and they can see if there were significant “summer slide” issues or not. If there are, maybe they can do something to help with it next summer. This may be stressful for teachers to deal with at the end of the year so I have a quick solution that I have started doing that has made this process super easy AND valuable for the next teacher to look at. There’s nothing worse than being handed a bunch of tests and not knowing what they mean.
I recommend using this one page (double sided) phonics screener summary. It shows student growth throughout the whole school year and it is easy to tell at a glance if the student was “on grade level” during the previous school year. This is not only valuable information to pass on to the teachers for the new year, but it’s also valuable information for you throughout the current school year. I fill this same one page paper out throughout the whole school year for my students and it helps me analyze how each student is doing and then it’s super simple to just hand it over to the next teacher.
This is what the one page phonics screener looks like for 2nd grade (don’t worry this is a made up student and not their real data). The stars mark what the benchmark is for that time of the year making it easy to see if a student is “on grade level” with just a glance. CLICK HERE to view the product that this phonics screener is included in.
When my students leave on that last day of school, my first instinct is to run out of the building as fast as I can and start my summer vacation. However, that’s not always the smartest thing to do for a couple reasons. One, your admin probably wouldn’t be very happy with the status of your classroom. Two, you are setting yourself up for a disaster to come back to next school season. I highly recommend thinking a little bit ahead so your “back to school self” will be happy and make a smooth transition back to school. I recommend making sure your bulletin board materials are easily accessible. I also recommend pulling out your papers for back to school night and even making copies of these materials. The first year I did this, I was so relieved when August came and it helped me feel much more prepared for the coming school year. I also like to make sure my labels are accessible so I am ready when I get my class list to label all the things.
