Five Ways to Create a Strong Finish for the School Year

As the school year draws to a close, we’re all looking for fun ways to keep our middle school students engaged and learning– right up to the last day!

The Middle School Mob has come up with a list of five activities that are sure to help you make the most of these last weeks…and keep you sane at the same time! 

1.  Sharon from Classroom in the Middle uses Summer Practice Cards.  Summer Practice Task Cards are designed to provide a review of language arts skills for middle schoolers or students in upper elementary grades. The 30 half-page cards include five each on six summer topics: At the Beach, Life on the Pond, Low-Tech Fun, The Ball Game, Picnic Time, and Vacation and are perfect to use with a fun classroom game or activity. A coloring page cover and a checklist of assignments completed are also included so that the cards can be sent home for a summer practice booklet.

2.  Shana from Hello, Teacher Lady says that no school year is complete without a little reflection! This End-of-Year Student Reflection & Feedback Google Form encourages students to reflect on their year while providing teachers with valuable student feedback and insight. The responses are automatically stored in a Google Sheet for easy viewing from any device, so no need to worry about collecting paper or wonder where you're going to store all those paper stacks.

Shana says, "I love using this digital form with my students not only because of its ease and convenience, but also because the thoughtful responses have helped me reflect on my year and improve my own teaching for the following year. (Psst - you can download the form for free in my Teachers Pay Teachers store!)"

2.  Lisa shares Mrs. Spangler in the Middle's top 3 ways to finish the year strong! There's an inspirational video, a positive reinforcement system that culminates on the last day of school and even a daily motivator for those tough classes.

4.  Lit with Lyns recommends this Digital End of Year Student Reflection as a great way to give students the opportunity to reflect on their year. It also allows them to provide feedback on what they thought worked well, as well as what they would like to change in specific classes.

"Not only did this help my students to reflect," Lyns says, "it also allowed me to do the same. After reading their suggestions, in addition to what they liked, I was able to implement some of their ideas into different activities and strategies I used the following year. This resource is truly a WIN-WIN for both students AND teachers!!!"  It comes in both digital AND printable format!

5.  Marypat from Just Add Students recommends having your students create a Reading Legacy Project.  This is a fun way for students to reflect on all the great reading they’ve done through the school year.  Students create a resource for next year’s class that includes book reviews, scrapbook pages, “best of…” awards, and signature pages for notes of encouragement to the upcoming class.  Great resource for next year when your students ask, “What should I read?”

Give one of these ideas a try and let us know what you think... or offer an idea of your own that makes the end of the school year a breeze!

Successful Classroom Systems for an Organized Classroom

Hi there! Shyra here from Junior High Core Values  A lot of times, we assume that routines and procedures are taught and mastered in the younger grades, but that’s not always the case. I always tell my sixth grade parents at Back to School Night that sixth grade is like “Kindergarten, the Sequel”.

Consistency and repetition are incredibly important at the beginning of the year in order to have a successful classroom system. Here are some systems that I use in my sixth grade classroom to make sure that we are maximizing every moment of learning time. 

Build a Classroom Community

A lot of this depends on how much freedom you have at your school site. However, it can be done. In my classroom we use three classroom norms: Attentive Listening, Mutual Respect, and the Right to Participate/Pass  Depending on the class, I may leave off that “pass” part. Throughout the year we participate in several team building activities to foster a sense of trust and community in the classroom. Since time is always in short supply, I try to bridge these in to whatever curriculum we are focusing on in the moment.

Stick to Routines.

It might sound boring, but for the most part, my students know exactly what to expect from the moment we enter the school building to the time that instruction begins.   Our end of day procedure is also the same from day to day. 

Nonverbal Cues

Nonverbal cues are the icing on my cupcake, the ice in my iced tea, and the chocolate to my difficult day.  My students use signs for asking a question, sharing a comment, asking for the bathroom, showing sympathy/agreement, and giving support. I, in turn, use signs for silence, for getting in line, for transitioning, for sitting, and for waiting. Establishing, practicing, and being consistent with classroom signs saves a LOT of time and makes the classroom run much more smoothly.

Student Buy In

One of my favorite ways of maintaining an organized classroom is to use a classroom economy. Hello, why didn't I start this at the BEGINNING of my teacher career?  Students are much more engaged and invested when they own their classroom...and it makes a lot less work for me! There are many ways to set this system up all over the internet. In fact, Mylie wrote about her system in detail just a few weeks ago.  In my classroom what works is having students apply for a job at the beginning of the trimester. They keep the same job for the entire grading period. Every student has a job, and every job has a salary that can be used for our monthly classroom auction. Now of course, there are going to be students who don't/can't remember your expectations. The way I handle that in my classroom economy is a Behavior Log. Entering your name in the behavior log (missing work, talking, not showing mutual respect, etc) is a $25 fine per infraction. The first two weeks of school this year there were over 25 entries in the log. Yikes! Last week, there were only five.   Now that's some improvement and organization! 

What are some systems you use in your classroom to make it smooth and organized? 

Setting High Expectations in the Middle School Classroom

Starting the school year can be a chaotic time, but one of the most important things we can do for our students is clearly set our high expectations. This simple move is vital, not only for maintaining the ideal classroom climate, but also for reaching those year-end levels of achievement and academic goals.

Despite the incredible need for setting high expectations, we are now in a world where instant satisfaction and unwarranted praise are the norm.  This makes creating the true high expectations classroom even more of a challenge.  Add the state-mandated focus on end results (testing) over true academic impact, and it's easy to lose focus or to let go of what's truly important for our students to learn!

So, what does it look like?

• A high expectations classroom is one where the students are responsible for their own learning.  This does not relinquish the teacher of his/her responsibility to teach, but the students are the ones who must put for the effort for their own success.  Allowing a student to fail is an incredible challenge for a teacher, but it can be the greatest lesson a student may learn in their lifetime.  
• A high expectations classroom provides grade-appropriate AND advanced curriculum.  This does not mean you are leaving anyone behind.  It means that you are encouraging students to work beyond the norm.  You are introducing them to what may come ahead, and in fact, creating a smoother path for them to follow.
• A high expectations classroom does not accept excuses.  Ruby Payne's A Framework for Understanding Poverty is a masterful examination of the impact teachers have on those in poverty.  While providing outstanding tools for addressing poverty in the classroom, she is also quick to explain that excuses only breed excuses.  Stop giving children the option to not do!  Instead, offer them options for completing the tasks in front of them. 
• A high expectations classroom is filled with structure.  Also discussed in A Framework is the simple fact that all students need (and crave) structure.  Rules are set to help students know the boundaries.  Without rules, chaos and a lack of focus are easy traps.  
• A high expectations classroom is filled with attainable goals.  We all set goals when we hope to find success. We may not state them out load, and we may not claim to have them, but we do.  Sometimes they are very simple (A daily to-do list), while other times they are more complex (Earning a degree).  Still, they give us guidance and a clearer path to a desired end result.  Encourage these for your students.  Even the smaller goals will make a huge difference.
• A high expectations classroom is a place for dreams!  Sadly, too many of our students do not have positive role models with great dreams and the desire to live an adventurous life; they are content with status quo.  Dreams, whether created through experiences with role models, by reading a good book, or through the encouragement of a great teacher, are so important!  If we never dream, we will never go!

How do you create a high expectations classroom?

1. Start on Day 1.  Establish the classroom rules.  Be clear about what they mean and thoroughly examine the consequences. Include rules for assignment completion, including grade-appropriate homework.  Being a student is their job, and learning that responsibility is one of the most valuable lessons they can learn.
2. Be consistent.  Follow through and consistency are so important.  If you are seen as inconsistent, they will never trust you to teach them the correct path for behavior, much less learning.
3. Be fair!  This is often a challenging step since fair is not always equal.  And this is a lesson worth sharing with your students.  
4. Don't accept excuses.  There is a huge difference between accepting excuses and providing appropriate, situation-based options.  Know this difference and be prepared with those options in your classroom.
5. Reward excellence, NOT everyday behavior. This is the most tricky tactic at all.  But we all have to take a look around and accept that our Give Every Kid A Trophy society is not working.  Instead of creating strong, competitive, hard-working adults, we have created a generation of entitled, demanding, dependents.

While some of these tactics may seem harsh and uncaring, they are truly the most loving you can be for your students.  Teaching them responsibility, character, and dedication can lead them much further in life than providing them an easy out.  More importantly, teaching with high expectations will also create a respect in your classroom that will not only benefit you, but also each and every student that walks in your door.

Where do you want to see your students go? Dream BIG and they will, too!

 

Day One: Engagement Station

Tori here, from Tori Gorosave: An English Teacher's Journey. Back to School is literally right around the corner for me and to be honest, I am super excited! I miss my classroom and it the last year my youngest one will be on campus with me before he heads off to high school. Sigh. Anyway, I want to spend a few minutes and share my favorite tips and tricks for the first day of school. 

Nothing is more deadly to student and teacher morale than bored and disengaged students on the first day of school. The first day of school sets the tone for the rest of the year, so start your year off showing students your class will be a year full of engagement, activity, and involvement by creating stations to introduce your classroom rules, procedures, expectations, and summer reflections. 

Now, I can stand in front of my 8th graders and captivate them for an entire period, but frankly I don't always like being the center of attention and holding students' attention for that long is hard! I want my students working just as hard, if not harder, than me, and if all they are doing the first day is listening to me talk or watching my presentation, then we have a problem.

Here's a preview of how I conduct my first day of class. I assign five mini assignments via stations to my students.  The stations can be completed in small groups, individually, or even presented by the teacher in eight minute segments. I have classes that range from 32-40 students, so I set up two table groups per station so I don't have groups larger than four students. I create a placard title for each station, place a task card or direction sheet next to the placard, plenty of paper or assignment sheets (depending on the task), and a completed sample which is all about me. I let my kids choose their groups of four and sit at a station (it doesn't matter what order they complete the stations in). I set my timer for eight minutes and display it under my ELMO so the class can see how much time they have. Once my timer goes off, students have thirty seconds to get up and rotate to the next station. I usually set my stations up clockwise since I give them such a limited amount of time to rotate. I then repeat the process until all groups have hit all five stations (about 45 minutes). Time flies! It is amazing to have students suffering from shock and awe on the first day once the timer goes off for the last station and students have to start collecting their work and prepare to head on to their next class!

Here is a breakdown of the five stations I use on the first day of school:

Station 1 is a syllabus scavenger hunt. I designed my syllabus to only including content I thought was imperative. I formatted my syllabus like an infographic to make it more visually appealing and capture student and parent attention right off the bat. 

For the syllabus scavenger hunt, I create questions focusing on specific areas of my syllabus. Students need to use the syllabus to answer the questions on a task sheet. 

To get students thinking ahead, Station 2 is a "Twitter Goals" activity. Students are asked to create one goal for my class for the present year, one overall education goal for the year, and one personal / family goal for the year. They explain these goals in 140 characters or less and complete them on a assignment sheet by filling out Twitter message bubbles.  

Reflecting upon and sharing highlights of their summer is one of my students favorite activities. Station 3, "My Summer in Pictures" requires students to choose three pictures to showcase their summer. The pictures can be snapshots from their phone or computer, or generic symbols that represent a person, place, thing, or idea. Underneath each picture, I have students write a caption explaining the significance of the picture.  My students love to complete Station 3 digitally, but many students also create beautiful scrapbook pages. I have students brainstorm their ideas during class station time, but they create the final product at home.

Again because I wanted to have students introduce themselves to me right away, at Station 4 students describe themselves as an emoji. I have a few lists of emojis laid out on the table, but most students are so familiar with emojis that they rarely reference the lists. To complete this station, students choose their emoji and draw it (or if you are digital they can just copy and paste the emoji onto a slide), underneath the emoji they have to demonstrate rockin' vocabulary and choose an adjective that best describes them (it should coincide with the emoji), lastly I have my students write a paragraph explaining how the emoji and adjective describe them. This is such a neat way to get to know a student from their personal perspective.

The final station, Station 5, consists of a "Student Resume." I have a stack of resume task sheets laid out on the table, and students grab one and complete the sections. This resume provides me with parent contact information (it is amazing how often the info on here provides me with working contact numbers where as the office emergency cards don't), student expectations of me, the grades students earned the previous year, a list of my students favorite things, etc. 

That sums up how I use stations to run my first day of school. If you want to use these stations ideas in your class, head on over to my TpT store and grab a set of Back to School Task Cards for yourself.

Have an amazing school year!

Make the Days Count!

We're all counting down the days until summer break, but what about making the days count?  When I asked my students what that might mean, they said making the days worth it.  So then I asked what would you suggest?

This is what they came up with:

I thought many of these ideas were spectacular!  So as soon as our tests are done, I'm going to make 

the days count with THEIR ideas!  

I envision a great service project where we can combine several of the ideas listed above.  How can we help kids this summer?  Perhaps we can spread the word about the free summer programs and free lunch program in our area by making some posters.  And maybe we can make them outside using some poster paint.  

Whatever we do, we'll be filling our days with things that matter and hopefully that will make all the difference!

Thanks for stopping by!

End of Year Activities

Hi there everyone!  I'm Lyndsey, from Lit with Lyns!  The light at the end of the tunnel... We've entered the countdown to that beautiful time we call, SUMMER VACATION!!!  I never thought the day would get here!  Year after year I find myself scrounging for ways to keep my students engaged in these final days--something to keep them from bouncing off the walls-- or at least keep their bounce to a minimum. 

This year, as we're moving more and more close into a paperless (or somewhat paperless) classroom, I decided to create an End of Year Student Reflection for the Google Drive. The End of Year Student Reflection is a great way to give students the opportunity to reflect on their year, as well as to provide feedback on what they liked and didn’t like in both specific classes and school in general.

For those of you who aren't open to do this digitally, I also have a printable version of this activity, which can be found here.

With both of these, students have the opportunity to think about what they liked, what they would like to do have done better, what they hope to accomplish in the future, etc. This also gives them a little break from the day to day school work that they're used to, which also helps them to enjoy what they are doing. 

We would love to hear about your end of the year activities!  Share your ideas in the comments below!

Year-end Self Assessments

Assess much?!  

Of course you do!  Formative, summative, state testing, completing student progress folders...by this time of year, you are probably feeling rather "assessed out."

However, there is one more assessment you that will provide you with a wealth of information about yourself, your students, and how you can improve your teaching:  self-assessments.

We assess our students, the state or another standardized test assesses our students, but what about allowing them to assess themselves?  Middle school students (as we are so keenly aware) have opinions!  And they appreciate the opportunity to express them.  When you provide your students with a chance to step back and honestly look at what they've accomplished this year, they will discover that they actually did learn something this year!

Looking Back

I set aside a class period to allow students to reflect on what they've accomplished this year.  Begin with a class brainstorming session.  What were the big concepts they learned?  What writing assignments or projects did they complete?  What goals did students work toward?  What special skills did they focus on this year?  What new technology did they learn or use?  What review games or activities did you use?  Encourage students to refer to their planners to jog their memories -- and create a big list on your board.  (It is helpful if you create your own list ahead of time to help them remember!)

If your students kept portfolios or journals, give them time to look through their work.  One year, I had a student hold up a paper that she'd written at the beginning of the year and exclaim, "I can't believe I wrote that!"  She could see that her writing skills had improved!

Once you have your list and students have looked through journals or portfolios, provide them with a list of questions.  You can use the questions I've created in my free year-end resource, or you can create your own list.  I wanted my questions to be positive, so I stayed away from questions like "What did you like the least?" (Why are those the questions that are always so easy to answer?!)

Why This Works

1.  Students respond really well to this.  You think you might get some unkind comments since it's anonymous, but students appreciate the opportunity to give you an opinion.  This is especially nice for the quiet students who may never complain or compliment. This is a way for all students to speak their minds. 

2.  Students can stop and look at how they've grown.  This little activity provides a wealth of self-confidence -- like my student who couldn't believe the difference between her writing at the beginning and end of the year.

3.  This helps me plan for the next year.  We can usually tell when an assignment is a bomb or the students really hate something, but we often don't know what they enjoyed.  

4.  The list you will create during the brainstorming session alone will give you a tremendous boost.  Take a picture of it and send it home to parents in a year-end email!  Your students worked hard this year! Share that picture with your administrators as well, and save it to share for next year's "meet the teacher" night!  

What's Next?

You probably have done your own self-evaluations in preparation of teacher evaluations with your administrator.  Consider completing your own year end self-assessment that is for your eyes only.  You can use the one I have in my free year-end resource if you like, or just take out a sheet of paper and write down what went well this year and what you'd like to change next year.  

Tuck that self-eval in your desk or planning book -- or somewhere else you'll find next fall when you return to your classroom.  It's like sending a message to your future self!!

Plato said, "An unexamined life is not worth living."  And certainly, both students and educators will benefit by taking time to examine what we've done, how we've grown, and where we can improve.   

Enjoy the last few weeks of school, and don't forget to learn from this year!

Happiness always♥