Everyone remembers that feeling; the anticipation and buzz around the end of term, completion of the school year, and most importantly no more school for (at least!) 6 weeks. There’s nothing quite like it when you reach adulthood – unless of course you’re a teacher! But for teachers, those last few days of term can be chaotic to say the least. Even if your students aren’t doing exams, the kids are at peak levels of excitement and mischief. It takes a steady and well-seasoned teacher to hold the fort in that desperately anticipated freedom for the last few days of term, but we have devised some ideas to help get any teachers weather the storm.
End of Year Awards
An end of year awards ceremony is a great way to round off the school year for your students. This is something that you can plan and talk about in advance to get the students involved in, encouraging wholesome self-reflection and thinking about how their year has been. It’s even possible to get them involved in nominations, categories, and even prizes, but most importantly it is a way to reward your students for what makes them special and make them feel included and appreciated. There are plenty of resources across the internet for finding fun yet positive ideas for awards for every students but it is up to each teacher to know their students well enough to know what will work.
Do away with the DVDs
We all know how tempting it is to just stick a DVD on the television and leave it at that; and often it’s the students who demand this sort of thing to happen. But let’s face it, this isn’t ideal. When the kids know all they are doing in class in watching a DVD they will start to question the purpose of coming into school and you could see a negative effect on attendance and behaviour. Simply Education is just one site that you can use to find more information about how to control a noisy class.
Co-operate with your colleagues
One of the most important things for your students in the run up to the end of term is some degree of consistency in their routine. Of course, the whole atmosphere should be more laid back and stress free, but there is nothing worse than getting a class of children loaded up on sugar expecting to do zero work just because that’s what they did in the previous period. Talk with your colleagues and work out how to positively approach the end of term without any disruptive clashes in lesson plans.
Ask for feedback
Using the time in these last few days of term to set yourself up positively for your next term can be very productive. Simply ask your students to anonymously fill out feedback sheets or surveys and get a treasure trove of first hand opinions on your teaching methods.