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What do you do with them the last week of school?
They will be bored of movies by Wednesday, my low/rough class will refuse to do any work, and I just may get into trouble for starting a fight club.
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I'm not a teacher (yet...) but my favourite thing to do was play games along the lines of jeopardy, but with stuff we were supposed to know from the class.
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Being from the midwest, it always boggles my mind that school doesn't dismiss until the middle of June in other parts of the U.S. It's those little regional differences that, every once in a while, seem to just surprise me. This is despite the fact that I already know about them...
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What grade do you teach? I'd think that could make a rather substantial difference (not that I'm a teacher).
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Club them in the back of the head as they come in the room and leave them in the corner til the end of school.
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I student-taught in 7th grade, and the team I worked with had planned to book the computer lab, and let kids create videos on "How to Survive 7th Grade." They planned to show the videos to new 7th graders at the beginning of next year. When I talked to my cooperating teacher, she said it went pretty well.
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Having been out of school for two weeks now, I forget that others are still plugging away at it. Of course, the kids come back on August 7th for me. The last week of school? The letters/videos/ppts/etc. for the kids coming in the next year is always a good idea. ( ---> Belle) Conducting surveys and graphing results works well (how many are going out of town/state/country during the summer, how many are going swimming, watching movies, etc.) Making "back to school" packets for younger grades gives a sense of accomplishment and of helping others. Making a Rube Goldberg contraption is fun.
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They have already collected the technology from my room unfortunately. The computer lab has even been broken down already. I like the idea of making stuff for the incoming students though.
We just finished our unit on Europe, so I decided to teach about Anastasia. I started with the facts, and am showing them the movie. I may have them do an assignment showing the inaccuracies.
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quote:Originally posted by King of Men: How about an armwrestling tournament? Ought to keep the boys at least busy for a day.
I have actually tried that before. Either they can't handle it, or I don't quite have the classroom management experience to handle it.
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Oooohhh...I really like the surveying and graphing part! I think interpreting graphs is a weakness for many students, having them create their own may help with that.
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A couple of ideas(I am assuming you are teaching Geo):
How much time do you have left?
End of the Year Jeopardy, with prizes
Latitude/Longitude Bingo
The key is to keep things as "regular" as possible until the end. Kids tend to check out somewhere in April, and the tendency is to loosen up. This CAN be disastrous.
Make Sundials. I can send you a cool site, and you can take them outside to test them.
Beofre making the sundials, read them "The Librarian Who Measured the Earth" if you have it. It is a story about Eratosthenes.
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Elizabeth: A couple of ideas(I am assuming you are teaching Geo):
How much time do you have left?
End of the Year Jeopardy, with prizes
Latitude/Longitude Bingo
The key is to keep things as "regular" as possible until the end. Kids tend to check out somewhere in April, and the tendency is to loosen up. This CAN be disastrous.
Make Sundials. I can send you a cool site, and you can take them outside to test them.
Beofre making the sundials, read them "The Librarian Who Measured the Earth" if you have it. It is a story about Eratosthenes.
Just 3 days.
I like the Bingo idea, especially for the last day. My kids love jeopardy. I usually do it before every test. However this bunch will not be playing it anymore this year. When I was out sick with strep throat a few unknowns broke into my filing cabinet and stole the entire box of candy I was going to use as a prize the last week of school. I normally give homework passes, but they are pretty meaningless this week.
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I teach high school, so the last days are course review for the final exam. I wouldn't know what to do with elementary or middle school kids.
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This makes me curious... Is it normal to stop teaching the kids during the last week of school and just watch movies or play games? If so, why? Why not just end school a week earlier, if all the teaching is done? Or why not continue to teach through the final week? I don't remember getting a week of movie-watching and game-playing.
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Well, TL, you assume that we are not teaching because the students are playing games. Jeopardy is a review game. Latitude/longitude Bingo is a game which practices latitude/longitude skills. As my sone once said about Everyday Math games when I asked him his favorite game: "I don;t like any of the games. They are more work than the work."
That said, we had to close our grades last Tuesday, and the last day of school is Wednesday. I cannot tell you why, but it does not make me happy.
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TL: If report cards are to be printed on time, grades (for my school, atleast) are due a week ahead of time. This also allows time to proofread report cards in case of errors. So, if students are aware of this fact, they know that nothing done in the last week actually counts toward a grade. This may or may not affect their willingness to forge ahead with work. The last week has the grade level assemblies with awards, perfect attendance parties, etc. In addition, in my case in particular, my class was in a trailer and the county wanted me out of it quickly because they didn't want to pay rent for another month, so the last day of school the kids werehelping me with moving books, math manips, science stuff, desks, chairs, etc. They really liked doing that (thank goodness) because otherwise it would have been all up to me and I'd still be there, trying to get it all done.
Caveat -- I teach fourth grade, so the things that apply to me may not apply to middle or high school.
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My administration came up with the terrible idea of holding a "graduation" (they call it promotion) ceremony for the 8th graders. They also required us to give final exams last week. Now the 8th graders have assumed they graduated and can run amok without penalty (my administration is terrible this year, no discipline control). This has trickled down to the 7th graders. At this point I am just doing crowd control.
My Anastasia lesson went well today. They were actually bothered by the fact that in real life Rasputin died two years before she did. I just have my a-hole class, they refused to stop talking. About 1/3 of my first period insist on being rude. Calling home doesn't work, detention doesn't work, and admin won't punish them unless they harm someone. I think I might do what I promised myself I wouldn't, lock those 8 students out and carry on.
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My mom reccomends lots of caffeine, they'll crawl out windows and cease to exist. Of course the middle school she taught in had English on the 4th floor.
Our last days of middle school didn't have normal class time, there was the day we went swimming, the day we had honors, the day we had a dj outside, the day we ran around the school a few times (then fell into the corner).
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TL: I thought the same thing, but everyone's right. It's not so much that there's nothing the teacher wants to do it's that the students have put themselves in "summer mode" due to premature "school ending" ceremonies.
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If you have paper and writing utensils the "7th Grade Survival Guides" are still doable. Have them journal their best suggestions.
Run an election for Class Clown, Class Poet, Most Likely to be In Detention All Summer, etc. Give them one day to organize, one day to campaign, and one day to vote.
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