¡Hola profes! I hope you had a great Memorial Day weekend and are feeling rested, recharged, and ready to finish up the year strong!
Let me know if you can relate to this: As the year winds down, I’m finding it more difficult to dredge up the motivation to do all the end-of-the-year things that need doing – packing up my classroom, cataloging resources, organizing my papers and files, etc. Sometimes, I dream about running out of the building toward my car as soon as the last bell rings to dismiss students!
As much as that vision makes my tired teacher heart happy, I know there are administrative tasks I need to complete before my last day of school. I will get a checklist at some point in the next few weeks with everything I’ll need to do, and will have to run around getting the appropriate signatures that can verify I’ve finished all the tasks.
In this week’s post, I wanted to talk about 3 important things to do FOR YOU before you leave your classroom for the summer that are going to make your life SO MUCH EASIER when you return to the building for the start of next school year. Your administrators may not require that you do these things, but your future self will thank your current self in August if you do!
#1 Document what was going well (and what wasn’t) in your classes.
The end of the year is arguably the most challenging time of the school year – there are seemingly endless interruptions to classes and routines like field trips, state testing, and AP testing, not to mention the spring fever that affects both us and our students. It can be more of a struggle than it used to be to keep students engaged.
Before you leave for the summer, take some notes about what was (and what wasn’t) going well in your classes at the end of the year, while it’s still fresh in your memory. This doesn’t have to be anything formal – I like to take anecdotal notes in my planner. Sometimes, I just write something simple like, “Students didn’t like this” or “More of this!” in the margins. Other times, I write suggestions for improvement or mention where students struggled. Whenever I look at my past planners, I am grateful for these notes – they jog my memory and remind me of the ideas I’d had the year prior, which I definitely would have forgotten without the written reminder!
Sometimes, I’m tempted to NOT write anything and I assume that I’ll remember my experiences when the next year comes around. However, there have definitely been times that I try an activity or lesson from the year prior, have a difficulty, and think to myself, “Oh, NOW I remember! This happened last year, too!” We just have so many things going on as teachers that it is so easy to forget the specifics of a lesson after a year has passed. Do your future self a favor and take your notes now and have an easier time next year!
#2 Back up your courses on your learning management system.
Cultivating material for your courses on your learning management system (Canvas, Google Classroom, Schoology, etc.) can be so meaningful for students, but can be time-consuming for you! If you’ve spent your time and energy creating pages, assignments, assessments and more on your learning management system, don’t risk losing all that hard work over the summer!
You might want to double-check with your technology department to see what their procedures are for rolling over courses during the summer – it’s possible your course material will transfer automatically from one year to the next. However, if that’s not the case, you will probably need to create a backup yourself. (It’s not a bad idea to make your own backup even if your technology department says that they will transfer your course data from year to year – better safe than sorry!)
Not sure how to back up your courses? Check out these sites for more information:
- How to back up a Canvas course
- How to back up a Google Classroom course
- How to back up a course in Schoology
#3 Get next fall’s decor ready.
Do you know what you want your classroom to look like in the fall? Did you recently purchase new decor (or did you purchase it earlier this year and just didn’t get around to putting it up)? Are there new bulletin board ideas that you have for back-to-school? If so, take some time before you leave for the summer getting that decor ready. Trust me, when August arrives, you will be so happy that you did!
Try to do as much of the following as possible:
- Print in color
- Laminate
- Cut out
- Organize and store safely
- Hang up ANYTHING that’s allowed by your administration and custodial staff (for example, I am allowed to leave up bulletin board displays over the summer)
While you might not feel like decorating for the fall just as the summer is beginning, you can save yourself so much time and stress at back-to-school time if you do!
I hope this was helpful! What would you add to this list? Leave me a comment and let me know!
Have a wonderful (short) week, profes!
Señora Q 