First off YES, I KNOW IT'S THURSDAY. SORRY TO MESS WITH YOUR DAYS OF THE WEEK!
Ahem. Erm. Um. Sorry ‘bout that.
Anyway. Welcome to the weirdest end of the school year ever. From your couch!
No goodbye hugs from kids. No yearbook signings. No end of the year breakfasts or lunches. No in-person awards ceremonies. No review games. No exams.
A friend recently called it the “Harry Potter” year. It was okay... until Voldemort popped up for some mortal peril at the end of the semester.
Just finish the content ...until the last week of ... no new content? But no exams? But kids are supposed to sign in anyway? Eep! That sounds like a recipe for kids NOT signing in...
And then the craziest school year then ends with a whimper and not a bang...
So, how WILL you end your school year? With a purpose or with a “see you next year... maybe ... or never ... ?”
Kids need closure. You need closure. Kids need some wrap-up. We all need to think about our year and reflect on it, both the normal part and the Covid/Voldemort part. Give them each a personal comment via email or one-on-one chat(they can be repeated) to tell them how great you think they all are. They need to hear that and they need a reinforced personal connection with you
Then, I highly recommend the student survey. Seriously, give your kids a survey about your class.
I say this every year, so I hope you’re ok with another annual reminder.
Survey your kids. Make it anonymous (or not). Do it in Forms or Polly or Survey Monkey. Whatever you like.
The “what” you ask is a little trickier. Here are a couple of thoughts...
- Ask a question, with a question mark. People are more honest with a question mark for some reason.
Ask them about pedagogy, environment, expectations, engagement, and support in your REGULAR CLASSROOM and in your DIGITAL CLASSROOM
- How well they learned in your class
- How kids behaved in the class
- How much encouragement they received in class
- How much the student participated
- How does this teacher help you
- Ask kids to rate how they felt about class activities, homework, projects, the subject of the course.
- Leave a few open-ended questions, like
- What was your favorite part of this class?
- What did I do to help you learn this year?
What could I have done to help you learn more?
- What could YOU have done to help you do better?
- Honestly, throw in a few questions about Digital Learning/Crisis Learning. We may have to do this again. It would help to have some solid feedback from your kids about how it went.
Then, read their answers. I am a big fan of anonymity, if possible. Kids answer more honestly if they don’t put their names on it.
After you read their answers, jot down for yourself a few major takeaways. They can be trends, specific comments or answers unique to a specific class period or group.
Use their answers to reflect on your year and set some goals for next year. We have no idea what next year will look like, but I think “different than usual” may be the theme. Self-reflection may be huge to help us really know where to start.
One of the most reflective and honest and helpful things I did all year was to survey my students. Try to catch them before they disappear in the no-more-sign-in-fade-away...
Try using one of these for inspiration. Then, make your own.
This is a weird end of the school year. I hope you can provide some closure through student surveys, conversations, drive-by parades, notes, and other closure activities in the next two weeks.
How are you helping kids have solid closure in this weird time? I hope you use the survey as the big one! How else? As always, email me! newmantr@pcsb.org
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