Am I crazy or does it seem wrong to expect kids to work hard all year, then just stop doing anything educational for the last five days of school? I am departmentalized but my team doesn't feel like switching the last five days of school. They are allowing their classes to being video games and will show movies....for five days. Of course, being the only one who doesn't want to go to work just to babysit and would like the children to actually participate in some type of learning activities makes me the bad guy, but my homeroom is going to actually do something and I will actually have earned my pay for the last five days. I teach at a very low socio-economic school and I am pretty sure most of these kids will not pick up a book all summer. But how can they be expected to when teachers don't even care about learning during the last days??!?!?! Thanks for letting me vent. I'm more than a little angry.
Here's your chance to do some really fun, educational projects with your class those last five days! Those other classes will bored out of their heads after the first day and your class will breeze through the week having engaging activities to keep their interest. You will also avoid the behavior problems that the other teachers are going to have because their students are bored. If you need some suggestions for fun projects, just ask us.
Do something fun, that they will learn from. Write and perform a play (or plays depending on class size), mock trial (with fairy tale characters), create their own educational games (have to write directions, make the game, then trade with another group), work on an end of the year newspaper, etc. The possibilities are endless. It can be both fun and educationally rewarding without opening a textbook.
I'm a LTS in biology and for our last week the (HS) kids are building terrariums with specimens they collect outside. We're taking advantage of the forecasted good weather and doing hands-on science! No way would I want to sit in a classroom and watch movies for 5 days straight.
I've already got some projects planned. I just added a few to to the lesson plans I had when I thought we were ALL professional teachers.
What I love about all of the ideas posted on this thread is that they would be excellent to do throughout the year, not just at the end! It is not appropriate to have five days of video games and movies. I do change up our routine towards the end, though.
We do enriching projects and spend time each day doing silent reading. We are not allowed to show movies during the last two weeks of school, even if it is in correlation with our curriculum.
Totally agree with you teacherintexas! (Sorry in advance to anyone who does this....) but I hate when I see the kids packing up the room, taking down posters, watching movies, etc.... My team planned 2 big projects for the last 2 days of school that will keep the kids engaged, learning, and having fun! We will be having a 4th grade Olympics and an Egg Drop Challenge. With the extra time, I will have my students working in learning stations. The more engaged we keep them, the better!
5 days of nothing! Sounds like a recipe for disaster to me. We keep routine until the last day, which is only a half day anyway. Five days is a whole week, about 3% of your teaching year. That's a reasonable loss, I think.
Trust me, I feel your pain!!! At my school, virtually every teacher packs up the room two weeks before the end of the school year. The grade below me watches nothing but videos and gives the kids an hour of recess in the afternoon each day. It is ridiculous and unprofessional, and I can't do anything about it because I am in the silent minority. Besides one other teacher in the building, I am the only one in the school who is pushing the kids to the end of the school year. It is entirely frustrating to see all the teachers leave immediately after the kids on the last day of school while I am spending hours packing, only because I was still teaching and needed resources available for the kids.
I do fun projects with my kids the entire month of May. The projects take longer than just five days, so I incorporate them into the daily routine. I have to admit, though, that this year was an exception. Since we are packing up the entire building and moving into a new building, all of the teachers-including me-have been packing up our room with our students' help. They love to help me pack boxes! We have also had an over abundance of assemblies and open houses, which has disrupted the routine greatly.
I feel the same way and also feel like the overachiever in the eyes of my peers. These kids have 3 months off, that's one quarter of the whole year-I use every single minute I have left with them to try and fill in those gaps. I actually had a teacher ask me last week why I was turning in lesson plans...because I'm still teaching!
I was able to get my kids to work up until the very last day before finals (Friday). They stayed with me until then, but on Friday we also had our big graduation ceremony, and I lost them. LOL. I tried to do some grammar games and word games, but about 15 minutes in, they won the war. I'm proud of them for working up to that point, though. That was a big accomplishment for them. We spent the last 45 minutes skimming through various news sites (my computer is connected to my projector). They always love watching the news with me, believe it or not, and there were a couple of local stories (including the one about the girl jailed for truancy) that really had their attention. So I figure it's not too bad to end the year watching the news.
Ahhh, this drives me crazy. It's even longer for us. We can't do educational activities if we wanted to because there are whole-grade activities going on (field trips, awards, field day, etc.)
We will be doing Daily 5 until the last day of school. We will also begin a new math unit this week. I guess I'm mean, too!
Mine's a little different because I'm in resource, but I'm not really teaching for the last five days. We have the rest of this week left (so 4 days) and a 3 day week next week. On Tuesday, I'll be in meetings all day, so no kids. On Wednesday, all of my groups are finishing up their last project. On Thursday, we're going to do some more fun games and activities- still learning, but definitely more fun that we usually have. I'm not doing typical lessons. We'll play math games and then for reading one of my favorites is to ask a question and have the kids run up to the front of the room to grab an object and answer the question to earn a point. On Friday, it will be my last day with them, so we'll be having a little party. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. They've worked hard all year- many of them have been my students for 2 years and I'm moving on to a new school so this is the last time I'll see them. Monday is field day, Tuesday is awards in the morning, school wide cookout, and teacher/5th grade kickball in the afternoon. Wednesday kids will be in their classes doing fun last day activities with them- many of my students have invited me to their class picnic, hike, or whatever it is they're doing so I'll just be going around to some of those rather than separating the students on the last day.
My kids have watched a movie twice all year and I was bored out of my mind. So were they, after a while. We'll be as routine as possible for as long as we can!
And then there are some schools where administration wants you checked out as soon as the kids leave which sort of forces you to pack during school hours... when kids are there...
I'll be packing today and the kids will be doing word searches, puzzles, playing games, etc. I'll be out tomorrow because I'm chaperoning the 8th grade trip, Thursday is graduation, and Friday is Field Day. Anyway, today is my only day to get things packed and sent to my former school (since I'm transferring back to 2nd grade). I really want to walk out with the kids on Friday! This year has been exhausting and I don't want to be here a minute later than necessary!
This is a good point. I think I need to be out too. I wonder if it's rude to start ripping things off the walls the Monday of our last week. If I took a car load each day I could totally be out with the kids on Friday!
