3 Tips for Finishing the (Toughest) School Year Ever
- Give Yourself a Break. We tell our students all the time “Don’t be so hard on yourself, everything is going to be okay.” Let’s take that advice we give to our students. The end of every school year is hectic and the end of the school year that took place during a pandemic may prove to be even more so. Don’t be afraid to say “No” to requests that you really don’t have the time for. Teachers do not say “no” often, if ever, but we need to set reasonable expectations in a school year such as this one. We may not be as productive as we normally are and that’s okay. Between remote teaching, hybrid teaching, in-person teaching and trying to find ways to engage students in all capacities of the 2020-2021 learning environment – this year has been exhausting!
- Mental Health is So Important! If the 2020-21 school year taught us anything, it is that mental health is very important. Be sure to prioritize your mental health during these last few months. Take the time to do the things that make you feel centered and calm. For some it is reading, for others it is a long car ride, or a run…for me it is 10 miles in Paris or Venice on my NordicTrack. Whatever it is, make sure to prioritize it just as you prioritize lesson planning. Even if it is just taking a walk around the block, if you don’t prioritize it, you won’t do it.
- Lean on Colleagues Few people understand what you’re going through more than your colleagues. Talk with each other, vent with each other, plan end of the year activities, collaborate on cross-team, cross-grade, cross-subject projects. Partnering with other teachers on your team is a great way to pack in much needed review while re-teaching or reviewing essential concepts. I teach math and worked with other teachers on my team to set up stations – students would travel to each classroom where there would be a Math, Science, & English station set up. I set the math station up at the computer in each classroom and had the students work as a team to work on a digital escape room. For my Algebra 2 students I created digital escape rooms on Complex Quadratic Equations, Logarithms, and Operations with Complex Numbers. The Science teacher put together task cards that reviewed essential topics for two of the rooms and a mini lab for the third. The English teacher had them build part of an essay about what a crazy year it was in each room. Most kids had such fond memories of stations in elementary school that they were talking about this for days!
