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Sailing into Summer Blog Hop!

Happy Sunday! So happy to be linking up with Julie Faulkner and the Language Arts Classroom!


It is so crazy that there is only 10 days of school left! ESPECIALLY, when we lost all those days due to snow and the huge fear was the year going into June. But, fortunately for us, there are many suuny days ahead and summer approaches and our time as teachers to reflect and rejuvenate begins. I am happy to participate in this link up and share some final ideas for this school year and prepare  for the year ahead.

1. Hold a morning meeting to talk about their fears and anxieties before they take the test.

With the huge test culture we have developed, students have a lot of fears and anxiety about tests and their performances on it. If you still have time before the test, let students have a space to talk about the test and for you to reinforce your belief in your students. Intentionally putting this time on the calendar will help you to hold this commitment to yourself and your students. For your students, they can write or talk out how they feel about the test or what areas they feel weak in. On your part, its an opportunity to reassure them, go over test content, planning review sessions, and most importantly, check your own mindsets about your students and their progress. I remember feeling frustrated at the end of my first year because I felt one group of students was not motivated and turned in mediocre work. It was until I had an impromptu group meeting that I learned that they did care, but they were overwhelmed and unsure in their abilities, so they checked out as a cover. Even if this isn't a problem in your classroom, it couldn't hurt to have more spaces for student voice in the classroom. 

2.Thing to do again: Daily activity countdown

One thing that I would do again would be to have a balloon count down for the last day of school. If you have multiple sections of classrooms, you could just have envelopes taped to the wall. 

In my classroom, I would intentionally plan 10 activities for students to engage in every day until the last day of school. I selected 10 activities I thought students would like and put a strip of paper in the balloon and blew it up. Every day, I would share the class goal/expectations as the condition of popping the balloon. If we completed the task, I would have a student pop a balloon. The activities were things like a water balloon fight during field day, making food (to teach following discussions), GoNoodle videos, etc. To improve for next year, I would talk more with students to get their feedback. 

3. Thing to improve for next year: Improve communications with parents

Next year, I want to include more parents dreams for their children into my classroom planning. I developed this template to your with some of the new teachers I worked with this summer and thought it was a way to keep them focus on the academic and social component of the work we do. 
The first page has a picture of the students because I think their faces help to remind you of who we are working for/with and how we can adapt our lessons for their interests in needs. 


Overall, the best way to sail into summer is to be reflective of your teaching over the past year and think of specific activities and experiences to engage your students. Opening discussion, injecting fun activities, and preparing to include parent/student dreams in your classroom are all ways to have smoother sailing towards the summer. I hope these tips were helpful for you! 

Click below to continue on in the blog hop!

2 comments

  1. I thought this blog hop was specifically for secondary teachers. You do great work, but it's nice, as a high school teacher, sometimes to be able to access relevant material without having to sift through the plethora of options available for younger students.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Very neat ideas! Thank you for joining us!
    - Julie

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