There’s a lot to keep track of in the next couple of months, from filling out your program preference sheets to updating your cumulative records to packing your classroom. The last months leading up to the end of the school year also are a good time to test out new pedagogical approaches.
Ruth Duran, a 6th-grade teacher at PS 315 in the Kingsbridge section of the Bronx, has one piece of advice for new teachers tackling end-of-year tasks: Start early.
In June, you’ll have Clerical Day to complete your students’ cumulative records. However, Duran suggests that you start creating a file of each student’s grades, thus far, in May. Request the attendance records from the school secretary in late May, so that when Clerical Day rolls around on June 5 this year, “everything is like an assembly line. If you don’t have your grades and the attendance ready to go for Clerical Day, it makes the cumulative records that much harder,” she says.
The last months and weeks of the school year also provide opportunities to experiment with new aspects of your curriculum.
Sarah Kuhner, a special education teacher at Special Music School, a K–12 school on Manhattan's Upper West Side, says the end of the year is a good time to try out short-term courses based on high-interest topics, or “mini-mesters” as her school calls them.
“These weeks are a break from regular instruction to do something really fun and engaging,” says Kuhner.
Her most recent mini-mester was titled, "Demystifying the Marathon," during which students learned about long-distance running, training, nutrition, pacing, “and of course we went outside to practice every day,” she said. Other teachers made music videos or short films with their students.
Shawn Fisch, a 10th-grade social studies teacher and a UFT Teacher Center site coach at Long Island City HS, experiments by swapping out a traditional assignment, like an essay, with a different format, like a podcast. He also takes time to refresh his teaching materials so that he avoids teaching the same content year after year.
“I always try to update at least one-third of my curriculum by looking for new authors, articles and ways to use modern technology to demonstrate student learning,” he says.
Finally, you’ll need to spend some time cleaning and organizing your classroom before you close up shop for the summer. Remember that your room may be used for summer school, so invest in locks for your closets for anything you want to keep secure.
Duran gives the same advice for packing that she does for cumulative records: Start early. And do a little at a time. If you wait until the last few days of the year, “that’s when you start stuffing the closet precariously, and it’ll be booby-trapped in September,” she says. She suggests thinking of the first round of sorting through and discarding materials as spring cleaning. “Include the students in spring cleaning. Have them go through their desks and select their best work to show for the final parent-teacher conference,” she advises. “Discard the rest.”
She cautions, however, not to involve students earlier than a few days before the end of school — or they may “get in the summer spirit too soon.”