End of the Year, and the Start of a Big Adventure!

We finished school a week ago, but so much has happened since then! I'm going to cheat on Five for Friday and show you 5 photos from our last week of school.

It's simple, but my kids loved getting to read in our nature center for 20 minutes. I let them each enjoy a freeze pop, and popped around to get an individual photo of each kid for their end of the year gift.

The next day, the kids used adjectives to describe each other in a game of Scoot. Since my kids mostly thought of different ones, I had them do an extra round where they voted for 2 others, and then I put the results into a Tagul word cloud to finish up their end of the year class gift, just like last year.

Once I got the basic Tagul settings set up, I just retyped things for each student and I probably had these printed and ready in about an hour. They would look great framed!

Our grade level took the kids to a bowling alley for our end-of-the-year party. For $3, each kid got to play two games, and they LOVED it! (This little guy had never gone bowling before. Check out that form!)

My kids got a chance to give their teacher a report card, which they just loved. If you're still in school, you can grab a copy of the teacher's report card here.

You can link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching here!

It was a very busy end of the year, but this past week has been REALLY huge for my family.

Last weekend, I threw a party for my husband to celebrate his birthday and graduation, and yesterday, on his official birthday, he accepted a job in the Cincinnati area (where he's from, and we both have family).

So... I'M OFFICIALLY MOVING!

We are both excited, but I am really sad to leave my current school and job. If anyone has job searching tips, classroom moving tips, or any connections that might help in the Cincy area, I would be forever grateful!

10 Things Every Teacher Should Do At The End of the School Year

Well, I've officially been out of school a week- and I still have tons left to do in my classroom. But I know that there are still lots of people finishing up this week or in the next few weeks, so I wanted to give just a quick end-of-the-year checklist!

Note: I'm not including things like "pack up your room" or "finish permanent files" because- let's face it- your school is going to remind you to do those things, and it's a little different everywhere. These are things to hold YOURSELF accountable to!

1) Take pictures of your room before you pack anything up. Even the messy parts.

And let photos convince you to keep less 'stuff'- I had quite a few anchor charts I loved and thought about keeping- but instead, I took a photo and recycled it! (Anchor charts are more meaningful when they're created with the class, anyway!)

2) Leave yourself more time than you think you will need to get everything done. The end kind of creeps up on you! (and you don't want to stay up until 5 in the morning, like me!)

My end-of-the-year gift to students- click the photo to read more!

4) Let students help you put things away or do basic cleaning (but do check regulations on letting students use something like Lysol wipes!). 40 little hands work a lot faster than 2 big ones!

3) Clean out students' supplies gradually. Don't plan to pack up everything in one afternoon, and don't send it all home in one afternoon (it gets heavy!). You might also want to pack up the morning of that last day to avoid having to rush!

I asked Target to donate 25 bags to me at the beginning of the year and we used them to hold the supplies we didn't need in our desks all the time. They made the first day so much easier- and then at the end of the year, all the little supplies were put in the bag to keep them all together. Worked so well!

5) Although parents love to be invited and included at the end of the year, make sure you also allow some time for just you and your students to spend together. I kept our class awards 'just for our class family' and put the kids in two lines with an aisle down the middle.They got to high-five and congratulate and cheer on their friends as they walked to get awards, and it felt so special to have time just 'us'!

I used these ADORABLE free awards from Inspired in Second! Click the picture to go check them out.

6) Organize it now. Don't tell yourself you'll do it in August!

(I just organized my math manipulatives better, and now I am working on my classroom library- it desperately needs it and I know my time will fill up during back-to-school time!)

7) Make a list of the things you did this year. For me, I did this with my students (who remembered things I would've forgotten) in a timeline. This will really help my next year planning!

8) Create a one-stop resource for yourself with important computer logins and passwords. I know I have them all memorized now, but in a few months? I will probably forget them all!

9) Check your classroom supplies, and start lists! What classroom supplies do you need to buy, want to keep an eye out for, or want to request from parents next year? What things do you need to remember to do for back-to-school? What new lesson or unit ideas do you have? What projects do you plan to work on? (For me, that one's less of a list and more of a Pinterest board ;)  For me, making lists and adding to them as I think of things through the summer helps me stress less about forgetting them. I use a little notebook that I keep in my purse so it's always with me!

Click the picture to go to a tutorial on giving your mini-book a "makeover"!

10) Write thank-you notes or cards to those who have helped you through the year. I had my students help me with cards for the businesses and people that helped with our lemonade stand, as well as for parent volunteers and room moms. (This makes a GREAT last-day-of-school activity!)

I also write thank-you notes to our secretaries and custodians, usually accompanied by some sort of baked goods. It doesn't have to be much, but if your school is anything like mine... my principal is great, but our school would not RUN without the secretaries and custodians! (And I'm pretty sure our principal would agree!) If you have an aide or assistant, make sure you thank them too!

New teachers, make sure you also thank any mentors- official, assigned, or neither! I know I have a few colleagues in particular that deserve an extra thank you for helping me make it through my first year.

And don't forget thank you notes for any gifts students gave you!

If you are looking to make sure you've done EVERYTHING you should at the end of the year, check this list at Scholastic- it has some great tips from a teacher who's been doing this a lot longer than I have!

My Teacher's Report Card for the End of the School Year

It's my husband's birthday! He's in Texas, though, while I'm in Indiana, and I'm sad I can't be with him to celebrate. But in celebration of his birthday, I'm sending HIM freshly baked cookies, and I'm giving YOU a freebie!

As I told my students, the principal evaluates me, but she's only in a few times a year. The kids who see me teaching every day can give me valuable feedback.
Had I just given them a survey, like I have in the past, I don't think they would've enjoyed it so much. But when I put out "My Teacher's Report Card" as our morning work on the last day, my class LOVED it. The idea of giving your teacher a report card had them in stitches, but I made them promise they would be honest and help me become a better teacher.

They did a great job. Some of the things they said I could improve on were definitely true- but hearing it from them helped me really start thinking about what I will do next year to make that happen.

Are you curious what grades your students would give you?

 I'm offering up the pdf file of My Teacher's Report Card free here, or the Word file (.docx) here if you'd like to change it up a bit (but it may look funny if you don't have the font ABC Teacher installed.)

One more thing before I go- if you are still looking for a memory book for the end of the year, I have to recommend this free end-of-the-year memory book from Cara Carroll. It's fantastic!

We just worked on a couple of pages a day until it was done. It includes an autograph section, so your students who don't get a yearbook don't have to be left out! I also took one of the pages and covered everything but the border to copy a few extra pages in the back for the photos I gave each student.

I had the joy of seeing students write things like "I learned it's okay to like pink" or "Now I really like reading" - and the joy of awesome pictures like this one to make me laugh.
 
I slept in yesterday and did NOTHING for school before I came in today, and I just got all of my cume files done. Now, it's time for filing and packing all of my things... not excited! But last year at this time, I was moving out of a school and looking for a new job, so I am extremely thankful to HAVE a classroom next year (and know where I'm living, and not be wedding planning). I'm crossing my fingers for all of you who are still looking!

Easy and Cheap End of the Year Gift!

School ended for us last Thursday, which meant that last Wednesday, I stayed at school very late. Like, I went to bed at 5:30.

I always procrastinate on grade cards, but I was also working on my parent cards and gifts, student gifts, and everything that goes along with the last day! I also had a great last-minute idea (story of my life!), and I wanted to share it with you so you could work on it BEFORE that last day, if you are still in school.

Along with making prints of all of my photos of the year, I had taken a close-up headshot of each kid while they enjoyed someone's birthday snack outside, and I printed one of each.

If you are still looking to order photo prints for your class, be sure to check Retail Me Not before you place an order. I found a coupon code for 50% off of my photo order at Walgreens, which saved me $30!

I'd also gotten a list of adjectives from the class to describe each student. Basically, each kid wrote their name at the top of a piece of notebook paper and then we played "Scoot" around the room until they had described each of their classmates.

I typed in the adjectives at Tagul. You have to create a login, but I found that it was so quick and easy to save the files that it was worth it! It's also completely free.

I also typed in each student's name 7 or 8 times, so it would be the biggest. Tagul automatically made the adjectives bigger if they were suggested by a student more than once. You can choose the font(s), color(s), and style of your word cloud, if you want.

Then, I saved the files in a folder (all easy to find on my desktop!) and plugged them into a Word file with blue rectangles. To save ink, I put a while square over the part where the picture would go.

The blue shapes are just my "frames," and I pulled in the Tagul files individually before I hit print. (Hint: the file won't show up as an "image" when you tell Word to "insert picture" but if you have Word look at all files, you can still add it!)

You could also digitally print the student's picture, of course... I just liked the look of a photo print, and used a glue-stick to put it on.

I gave it to the students like this, but next year I may get a dollar store frame for each one. I was so happy with how these turned out! I had seen a Wordle or cloud for students' names and adjectives before, but I felt like combining it with a photo will make a really great keepsake for the kid and their family.

On that note... it's time to shower, eat, and head into school to finish my cumulative files.

Hoping to hear soon about the timeline for me moving classrooms. Something about switching grade levels is making me SO motivated to think about next year, and I'm sad that I have to work this summer instead of spending all of my time getting ready!

Are any of you working over the summer, too? Tell me I'm not the only one...