School Year Wrap Up

 This time of year it is easy to become discouraged. You are tired. You are ready for the year to come to a close. You feel the energy of the students, the energy that says "good-bye, I've checked out." 

Take a minute to watch the video by Jay Shetty. I hope that his words help you realize you are still here and you are still going. 

"If it was meant to break you, it would have. If it was meant to stop you, you wouldn't be here."-Jay Shetty

You are here and you are pushing forward. 

Now that you've had your pep-talk, let's help you really feel like you can make it through these last few weeks.

In last week's What About Behavior email an idea was shared about Lame Duck sessions in government and applying this idea to school. As you wrap up curriculum it can seem as if there is little to share with the students to hold their attention. But if you remember reading Erin's weekly email she reminded us "down time is clown time." Here is the link to the Lame Duck article. I encourage you to take some time to read the ideas presented. I will take some time to highlight a few ideas here to help get you started.

The article breaks up the ideas into; low prep, medium prep, and high prep.

Low Prep

1. Clean Up. This is an easy and helpful way to use the last few days of school.

2. Thank You Notes. I love this idea. It's a very mindful idea. You could even do a mindfulness and then move into this activity. Write thank you notes to teachers, students, parents, etc. 

3. The Compliment Project. Watch the video here. Did you feel all of the feels with these kids? Imagine how you could wrap up your school year with this activity.

4. Go Outside. Now this article talks about playing Red Rover... 😧... maybe not this one, but go outside and read a book, listen to a mindfulness, clean up, etc

Medium Prep

1. Coloring Books.

2. Read Aloud.

3. Board Games and Card Games. TECH FREE TIME PLEASE! Think about all of the time we have students on screen for school work. Think about how much time they spend on screens at home. Give them what their brains need. Thinking skills. Communication skills. Following rules. Collaboration. Cooperation. 

4. Mindfulness Practice. What if you had a mindful morning. Do an Inner Explorer, listen to calming music, dim the lights, etc. You can mindfully eat. Bring foods to try in a mindful way. Mindfully listen to new sounds. 

I just had a great idea....Write positive notes to future students of that grade. You could give students post-its and have them write positive statements, you put them in a box, and in the fall bring them out and put them on desks.

High Prep

1. Genius Hour. Allow students an hour to research a topic of their choice and have them present on this idea.

2. Student Video Project. This could be a variety of things that you allow them to create.

3. Student/Teacher Unconference. If you read this one it sounds cool, but it does need a lot of prep and time. Maybe a small scale would be Student Ted Talks. Take what they research during Genius Hour and allow them to give a Ted Talk.

There are a variety of ways to change down time to activity time. Make your time intentional, maybe fun, and hopefully helpful. 

Incase you didn't click the last link here is the video from that article. It's less than 5 minutes, it's worth the watch.