5 Ways To Celebrate The End Of The School Year

The sun is rising earlier and earlier. The students' attention is less focused. Their energy; more scattershot. The end of the school year is fast approaching. After slogging through second semester, no teacher wants to plan a comprehensive lesson on the value of Memorial Day. So, forget it! Instead, try these 5 novel ways to celebrate the end of the year.

1. Have Class Outside

Students' gazes are slowly drifting from the board to the window, filling the world on the other side with imagined Summer adventures. Give it to them! Venture from the confines of the classroom this week, arrange your students in a circle on a grassy lawn, and encourage freer discussion than what would usually fill your classroom.

 2. Swap Classes

Short of going outdoors, swapping classes with a fellow teacher will allow students the adventure they so desire, but still within the structure of school. For best results, classes should not be given any advanced warning, but instead surprised with a field trip down the hall.

3. Let the Students Teach

In another effort to satisfy a late-Spring class's desire to break the mold, plan an activity wherein students research a subject, themselves, and then lead a lesson. Research has shown that instructing on subjects results in higher retention, so it's as pedagogically sound as it is radical.

4. Creative Projects

As was mentioned before, students are longing to live out their Summer lives at this point in the year. Entertain that desire by encouraging them to write stories or dramas about the vacation. Where do they intend to go? What do they intend to accomplish? Will they continue practicing their multiplication tables? (No)

5. Party!

It's an obvious one, but few teachers are willing to spring a party on students for fear that it might create conflict with other classrooms that are hard at work. Who cares! It's the end of the year. The administration isn't going to lock it down. The teachers in the lounge aren't going to be there around for a few months to shoot judgmental looks. Freedom, at last!