Speed Read of EOY Success: Three Ways to End the Year Strong
- Have an EOY Breakdown/EOY Calendar so your staff, families, and students can easily track the end of year activities. Example and customizable tool below.
- Focus on Mental Health/Joy with lots of opportunities to interact with nature, get outside, and decrease pressure.
- Amp up Grading Communication to manage expectations and information.
Read below for resources, tips, and the why!
Can you believe that the final days of the school year will be here before we all know it! In my building, I am seeing individual teachers begin their end of the year procedures like planning events and sending out grade reports. This helps keep parents and students informed and aware to end the year strong.
Sarah Besand, a teacher and Possip Reporter, discusses the importance of clear communication about academic expectations and final grades. She pairs this with resources to help with the anxiety this season may bring to end the year strong.
To complete this school year with grace and ease, our main focus needs to be around promoting mental health resources as well as grading communication. As you know as an administrator, the end of the year can bring with it a lot of anxiety surrounding final grades, and this can directly impact the stress levels of all school stakeholders. Being proactive about this can help set up your school for success. Here’s our top mental health and grading tips to end your school year with success.
End the Year Strong with an EOY Breakdown
I know for myself–I feel so much more in control when I can map out my obligations in my calendar for the coming month! For parents, teachers, and even students, being informed can ease a lot of stress that can come with the end of the year. Creating and sharing an End-of-Year (EOY) Breakdown could be a huge success on your campus!
An EOY Breakdown can take on many different formats, but it should include all information and dates families need for the end of the year. Some schools use detailed school wide emails, pdf flyers made with programs like Canva (free accounts for educators!), or a dedicated page on your school’s website. Personally, I would prefer this digitally so that any changes can be updated as they come up. Work with your school’s technology department to make sure this EOY Breakdown is accessible for families, teachers, and students.
We’ve created a Last Days of School Calendar that you can make a copy of and then edit. Access it here!
Mental Health Resources for All
Next, make sure you have ample mental health resources available for all to ease the stress of the end of the school year. This includes resources for students to end the year strong–and staff too! Stress can truly be one of the most transmutable emotions, and resources like these can help offset stress compiling on stress.
Use the end of the year perks to your advantage and shaking up the normal routine.
- Head outdoors. Encourage teachers to utilize the warmer weather to teach outside. This can help calm the nervous system of students, and teachers too–and can add to student learning!
- Revamp morning meetings. Additionally, starting the day classroom morning meetings with good conversation starters or breathwork can also help start our final few days on a positive note.
- Take a break. Encourage teachers to utilize breaks for students if they become dysregulated throughout the day–and consider this for teachers too! So often breaks are available for students, but teachers can benefit from this chance to reset too. When our nervous systems are calm, we can truly excel.
Amp Up Grading Communication
Let’s talk about grades. At the end of the year, this topic has the opportunity to feel empowering…or stressful! So much of this has to do with grading communication. Making sure parents and students feel informed about grades for each subject, leaves little room for surprises at the end of the year.
It’s true for any communication from school, but with grading especially, we must aim for transparency. Some ideas for this can include conferencing with students, sending out print-out reports, and being available for parent and student questions about grades. This may range from providing encouragement to information about retakes and make-up work. Whatever the case may be, aim to keep all school stakeholders involved so that the end of the school year runs smoothly. Here are some extra tips to make grading communication a success at your school!
We hope these ideas were helpful to you as you begin to implement your end of year procedures! This year has flown by, and these tips should help you complete it with ease. Congratulations–we’ve almost made it!
