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Welcome to the Teachers Need Teachers podcast, where we help new and beginning teachers

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navigate through those crazy first years of
teaching so you can maintain your sanity and

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personal life. Here's your host,
him Lapree. Welcome to the Teachers Need

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Teachers Podcasts, the podcast for teachers
you don't want to just survive teaching,

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but actually thrive. As a teacher, I find the end of the school

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year as both a time for excitement
and dread. Excitement because hey, we're

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almost done with this school year and
we're really close to summer break. But

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dread because things can get really hectic
and it can be super stressful if you

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don't plan for it correctly, because
there are so many factors that are out

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of your control that can throw a
wrench in your normal routine. In today's

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episode, I'm going to be talking
about surviving the end of the school year

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so that you don't actually hate life
as you're dragging yourself across the finish line.

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I know that as a teacher it's
really hard sometimes to do this whole

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end of the school year thing,
especially if you're a new teacher, because

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you don't know what to expect.
A lot of times we forget that we're

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supposed to do certain things, and
a lot of things pylon unexpectedly. So

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I really believe in being proactive about
the end of the year rather than reactive.

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So the first thing that you need
to consider when planning for the end

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of the school year is your school's
calendar and activities. So what are the

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end of the year activities that you
have to participate in? So these could

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be any kind of class or grade
level parties, any kinds of promotions or

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graduations celebrations. Maybe you guys have
finals or testing, or maybe you guys

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have like some kind of textbook or
chromebook or I pad return that everyone has

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to participate in. So these are
things that have already been predetermined. So

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basically, you want to use whatever
calor that you have and input these dates

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because you have to participate in these. And then you have to look back

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at the bigger picture. How much
time do you actually have for instruction,

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how many instructional days are left between
right now and the very last day of

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school, because that's going to determine
what you can actually teach. And then

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you have to also think about what
do you still need to teach? Are

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there any things that maybe you're going
to be testing or assessing somehow towards the

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end of the month or end of
the school year that you still have yet

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to cover. So that's going to
give you a better picture of what can

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do. But this is not so
that you panic and freak out because you

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haven't covered everything, but so that
you can be really strategic in terms of

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what you're going to teach next.
Now, you might have to be realistic

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because maybe you don't have time to
cover everything. You mean, it happens

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to all of us, especially if
you're a newer teacher. So hit the

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big things that you know you're going
to be assessing, or especially things that

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they're going to definitely need in the
next grade. You can hit those and

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reteach them and cover them again so
that you make sure they remember it when

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they move on to the next grade. Also, you want to consider any

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end of the year types of tasks
that your administration wants you to do.

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So this could be any repair requests, So maybe there are things that have

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been broken that you know are going
to get repair hopefully repaired over the summer.

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And then are there any supply requests
that you might need And it's going

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to take some time for them to
take care of that over the summer sometimes,

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and some schools and districts they have
some money at the end of the

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school year and they want to make
sure they spend it all. So if

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that's your situation, then definitely give
those requests in that you can get more

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supplies for next school year. Also, sometimes teachers are required to pack up

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their classroom so that the custodians can
do a deep cleaning like mopping, or

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maybe like vacuum me and shampooing the
carpets and dusting things like that. So

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if you do have to do that, the end of the school year is

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a great time to have your students
help you pack ups that you don't have

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to do it all by yourself.
Now, obviously you don't want to trust

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them with anything really fragile or with
any kinds of files with students names on

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them, but you know, you
can have them take boxes of markers or

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pens and things like that, or
paper and put it into cupboards or in

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shelves for you, and that would
actually save you a lot of time.

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The next thing that you want to
consider when planning for the end of the

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school year is your expectations, and
so I really encourage you during this time

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to modify your expectations. Don't necessarily
do everything that you had planned if it's

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going to stress you out and create
a ton of work. I used to

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do this in the past, where
I would have some kind of a project

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or something major for them to do
at the end of the school year,

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and I thought it was great because
it was like this culminating thing to really

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show me what they've learned. But
then I had to grade it. The

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kids wanted to know what they got
on it, or they want to to

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present it or something like that.
With all the other activities that I mentioned

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before the school requires you to do, I just didn't actually plan time to

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grade it, or assess it or
even look at it. So maybe question

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whether that you need to do all
the things that you'd hope that you could

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do at the end of the school
years, especially some things that you tend

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to have more fun with, and
maybe next year you can plan it better

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so that you start earlier it.
Don't stress yourself out at the end of

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school year, And if there are
things that you are required to do,

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you don't have to do it at
one hundred percent you can do it at

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fifty percent effort. And maybe you
have to give these particular assignments, well

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maybe you don't grade all of those
assignments. Maybe you don't grade the entire

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assignment. Maybe instead of it being
individual work, it's just a plast work.

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That way, you can ease the
stress and all the stuff that you

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need to do in the end of
the school year when frankly you're burned out.

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How I think of it is if
you work out, you can probably

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relate to this where if you work
out too hard, too much, your

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body doesn't have any time to recover
and it starts to hurt. It's because

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it's your body telling you that you're
doing too much. And so if you

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can't even think straight at the end
of the school year, and if you

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are seriously burnt out, then stop
adding more stuff to your plate that's going

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to create a lot of work.
Simplify everything that you're doing, and don't

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feel like a bad teacher about it, because you did your job for the

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other months of the school year and
now what we want to focus on is

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just like making it through. So
again, this includes any kind of projects

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that requires a lot of managing or
grading you can still do some really great

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project based learning at the end of
the school year, as long as you

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make it so that they're not too
convoluted, they're not too complicated. And

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I'm actually going to be making an
episode about project based learning in general,

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but especially at the end of the
school year, so be sure to click

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that subscribe button so that you don't
miss up on that episode. Finally,

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if you can avoid teaching new concepts
unless you absolutely have to for testing purposes

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or because you're just required to students
at this time of the year, you

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probably know this. They're not really
sponges anymore and they're not really ready to

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learn anything new. Plus, are
you really going to have enough time to

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practice it this late in the year, So I would avoid teaching something brand

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new unless you absolutely have to.
The next thing that you need to consider

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when planning for the end of the
school year is just having a lot of

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empathy. Empathy for yourself and empathy
for your students. Now, first of

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all, we need to acknowledge the
fact that during this time of year,

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the kids are going to be different
for multiple reasons. For one, they're

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pretty much at the end of whatever
their current grade is, and they're starting

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to become whatever the next age where
the next grade is. So, for

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example, I have seventh graders,
they're not really seventh graders anymore. In

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May, they're starting to behave and
act like eighth graders. And so they're

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going to be a little bit different, and that's something that you should anticipate

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and something that you shouldn't fight.
You're not going to seem normal during this

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time of year. They're also going
to be need forget out and completely checked

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out, well most of them,
And so you have to ask yourself,

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is this the time to hit them
with something really heavy, the really complicated

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learning when you know that they don't
have the mental capacity, and let's be

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honest, neither do you. I
know you're frint out. I know that

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you also need this upcoming break,
So why would you torture yourself and your

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students by doing anything really hard?
If you don't want to do a lot

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of work, then why are you
giving them a lot of work? So

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again, have some empathy because at
one point in time, you were in

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their shoes and you were going through
this as well. So if you can

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relate to that, then don't do
it to them. If you didn't want

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it done to you. So this
means matching activities to your students energy levels.

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So sometimes at the end of the
year, students are crazy, they're

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hyper, they're running all around place, and they just want to get that

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energy out. So you might have
to do something that's more tactile, where

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they're actually making something or solving a
problem together, again like project based learning

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as opposed to sitting and listening to
lecture. On the other hand, if

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your students are really lazy and burned
out and they don't have a lot of

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energy, then maybe it's the time
for them to do something that's a little

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bit quieter, some more individual practice
or some group practice that doesn't require them

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to have to get up and move
around when you can tell that they don't

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want to do that. I also
suggest reframing student behaviors at this time.

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So you might have a student who
has rubbed you the wrong way this entire

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year, and that last month of
school they're going to really start to annoy

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you. I can tell you this
from experience, and so how I get

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over this every year because I stopped
thinking of them as being annoying. I

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just think of them as just being
a kid. Even if they're a senior,

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they're still not quite an adult.
I mean, they probably couldn't adult

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very well on their own, and
they're just reacting to their emotions and hormones

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in the environment. So I would
just start to try to reframent this last

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month of school so that they don't
drive you crazy. I had a student

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last year who was an eighth grader, and they would not stop talking the

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entire year. They were one of
those students that would talk to everyone no

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matter what group I put them in. They would talk across the room.

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They were really loud when they came
in, and they usually came in late,

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and so I just had to reframe
how I saw their behavior because otherwise

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we would just need budding heads the
whole time, and I would hate coming

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to school every day and so what
this looks like? Instead of thinking,

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oh, God, so and so
it's coming right now? Am I going

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to make it through the day,
or oh I can't wait till they go

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home. Instead of thinking of them
that way and making the assumption that they

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are going to annoy you, assume
that they're going to be awesome. And

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I know that's really hard, but
assume that they are going to be like

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your favorite student, and eventually,
I hate to say this, they're going

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to start behaving that way. They're
not going to necessarily be your favorite student,

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but you're going to see a change
in them because you were approaching them

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differently and they're going to approach you
differently. And even if it's short lived,

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just for this last month of school, it's still going to make that

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last month so much easier. The
next thing you want to consider, what

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preparing for the end of the school
is how you're going to set everyone up

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for success. So as I mentioned
before, what this looks like is not

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giving difficult work when you have also
checked out and are burnt out and tired.

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So don't give students a packet of
thirty pages while you sit at your

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desk staring at your screen. Not
fair. They're burnt out and so are

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you. I also wanted assign work
that's going to be difficult to create,

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So again I have talked before about
how to grade quickly and how to grade

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less, so take those to heart, especially during this time of the year.

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Don't give them these multi part assignments
that you have to actually like look

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at every single part in order to
see if it's correct, give them easy

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assignments, or even better, give
them group assignments, or just something that's

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going to be really simple so that
you don't have to do war work when

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you got a lot on your plate. It's also a really good time to

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find fun and meaningful assignments for students
to do. I like to do a

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lot of reflection type assignments where they
look back at how they've done and write

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about how they've grown in certain areas. I give them a list of areas

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of growth and say, hey,
which when you think you're better at right

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now. So things like that where
it's really low barrier to entry, where

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the students aren't stressed out about it, and it's more personal and they can

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put a little more of their personality
into it, and they're a lot more

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engaged that way, which honestly makes
your GOP easier. If you know that

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the final is going to be really
difficult, if you have a final at

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the end of the year, they
focus on activities that will really prepare them

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for it, so they'll be a
little bit stressed out. In the past,

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I've given them question stems from the
final, and I've let them break

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the questions sum down so that they
can see if they even understand what's being

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asked, it'll give them the real
question. But when you do that,

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when you give them the question part
of it, then it allows them to

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see if they understand it. If
they don't, then you can give a

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feedback. That way, when they
take the real final, they're less stressed

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out and they're more likely to be
successful. Because something that's also kind of

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scary is if a bunch of people
fail your finals and then it lowers their

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grade significantly, then you're going to
get a lot of parents emailing or calling

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or just visiting you out of the
blue because they're upset about their kids grades.

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And of course, just remember that
every class and every grade is different

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in terms of what they need at
the end of the school year. So

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maybe even talk to your colleagues and
ask them how their students typically behave this

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time of year, so that you
can be proactive and you can set you

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and your students up for success so
that you're not dragging yourself across the finish

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line. So I hope you have
some ideas now on and how to set

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yourself up for success and your students
so that you can have a great end

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of the year. If you have
any other suggestions, let me know so

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I can pass it on to everyone
else and send me an email. I

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put the link in the show notes. Have a great recivere week, and

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I will see you next time.
Thanks for listening to the Teachers Need Teachers

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00:13:56,159 --> 00:14:01,120
podcast. Love this episode, head
over to Apple podcast Ask or Google Play

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to subscribe, rate and leave a
review.