It’s nearly here! The end of the school year is in sight and I know, you’re ready for summer break like yesterday. But before you start checking out, here’s a list of 9 things you should do before leaving for summer break that will help you feel more prepared to come back in the fall! Think of it as a Before Summer Break checklist!
1. Post grades
Okay, this one is obvious and also a contractual duty. But this is one that should always be done by the deadline that is provided by your school. So make sure you get this done for sure, before anything else!
If you’re feeling overwhelmed with grading, check out my post about how to stay on top of grading to start implementing for next year!
2. Recycle old work
Let’s be honest, you may have those stacks of work that you forgot to hand back to students (I always do – oops!), but once students go home from the last day, there is no reason to hold onto it. Recycle it. Just get rid of it seriously.
**If they are projects or creative assignments, make sure to keep an eye out for any that you may want to keep as student examples for future classes!**
3. File away unused work
You know that you always make too many copies, because you anticipate every student you have needing 4 copies. Even though that hardly happens (hardly). But those extra copies should be filed away for next year. Or you can recycle them. There’s no judgment here. The main thing? Just clear them out for a fresh space to come into at the start of the next school year!
4. Reflect
You should always take time to reflect on how the school year went.
- Were there any particular lessons that went well? That didn’t go well?
- Are you happy with the units you’re using? Do you want to add or change any?
- Are you ensuring that you have diverse points of views and voices within your lesson?
- Are you providing multiple opportunities (and ways!) to demonstrate their learning?
Reflect and write down your thoughts to know what you would like to change for next year!
5. (Loosely) plan the first week
I always feel so much better having an idea of the community-building, get-to-know-activities that I’ll be doing that first week of school. So I make sure to get my plans written down in my digital planner!
Some of my favorites:
- Resume about Yourself from Building Book Love
- Investigate the Teacher activity from Write On with Miss G
- First Week Stations
- Personality Quiz
6. Go through your desk drawers
Honesty time: My desk drawers always become a catch-all for anything that will fit in there. To make up for that, I make it a point to clean out and organize my desk drawers before I leave my classroom for the school year. That way, the following year, I can fill it back up with random stuff 😉
7. Write down any classroom projects to work on
As the school year goes on, I always think about what I want to do with the empty spaces in my classroom or what are some things that I would like to add to the classroom environment. One summer, I focused on implementing flexible seating into my classroom through getting dining chairs, lamps, side tables, rugs, floor cushions, and lap desks. Of course, adding in flexible seating is always a project and ever-changing, but I kept my eyes looking for free or cheap furniture that I could bring into my classroom.
This year, my classroom projects are:
- A new turn in bin for my work. The one I have now is just too confusing and starting to fall apart!
- An affirmation mirror
- Creating a mental health check-in poster (like what Affirmations and Accessibility is famous for!).
8. Organize 1 thing that will make you feel so much better!
You know what I’m talking about, that one part of your classroom that is a disaster zone. Or that pile of papers. Or your classroom library. Or that filing cabinet. Or maybe your Google drive. Whatever it is, you’re thinking about it right now.
Take the time to organize that project that lives at the back of your mind during the school year so you can never have to worry about it ever again!
9. Make edits to your syllabus NOW!
I always find that at the end of the school year, I have those things that just irritate me so much and I wish I had a policy in place about how to handle them. So right now is when you should update your syllabus for these weird situations that are coming up – that student that is always gone that is turning in a bunch of work, the excessive phone use, the pushing for an extension. Don’t have a policy in place? Fix that for next year!
By doing these 9 things before summer break, you should be able to take some of the overwhelm and nerves out of the first day of the following school year!
1 Comment
Thanks!