5 End of the Year Sanity Savers!

The end of the year is a very stressful time for teachers, but I am here to help with 5 end-of-the-year sanity savers to make wrapping up this year and preparing for next year just a little bit easier. Some of us will be teaching the same grade in the same classroom next year, whereas other teachers may be changing grades or moving classrooms.

Our to-do lists are a mile long this time of the year. However, now is the time to start thinking ahead to next year as well (when your report cards are done, that is). Why should you start now? One reason is that you have 20-plus eager little helpers who will gladly help out with cleaning and sorting jobs around the classroom. There are so many little tasks that your students can help you with, from testing markers to sorting through the levelled book baskets. The older your students, the more you can ask of them. Believe me, they love to help out!

Here are 5 things I have learned to do over the years to make my life just a little easier at startup in the fall:

Take a Picture to Help with Next Year's Setup

I learned the hard way that this is a must-do if you plan on replicating a particular bulletin board, or in my case, the word wall. I never leave enough space for the words when setting up my word wall in the fall. I have such a hard time judging without the visual of the words. Enter my iPhone, and voilà, you can now view the picture you took and use it to easily place your letter headers with the right amount of space to add your words. Take pictures of any bulletin board/display/anchor chart that you think you might want to remember or refer to again for the following year. I am a very visual person and have many such photos on my phone.

Take time to Purge!

Do I really need this? Take time to purge! Sort out that filing cabinet. If you didn't use the papers in that file this year and you are staying in the same grade, recycle them or give them away! If you are like me, then that will not be a priority when you return in the fall. I am totally guilty of an overflowing filing cabinet – take a look at my picture. I inherited files from the teacher whose room I moved into 15 years ag,o and they are still in there! Perhaps I have a problem! Anyone with me??

Take time to Sort Your Books!

Students love doing this job. First, I have them find all the damaged books and move them into the book hospital bin. At that point, it is up to me to decide if the book requires tape or if it has seen better days and is ready for recycling. I have several books that will be recycled this year, as they are so well-loved that even tape won’t help. Next, my students ensure that all books are in the properly labelled basket, either by guided reading level or theme. It is astonishing how poorly sorted the book collection becomes. Very quickly, those helpers start to police the other students as books are being returned. If your students are anything like mine, we are bound to find a D-level book in the E or F basket. I love starting out the year with my books all sorted and organized. It’s one less thing to worry about in the fall! CAUTION: I did not take the time to straighten up my bins for the pictures. This is real life at the end of the year!

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Evaluate your Organizational Systems

Systems that didn’t work probably drove you insane throughout the year! Now is the time, as the year winds down, to honestly evaluate your organizational systems. Did they work for you and/or your students? Did students use the systems you implemented properly? If the answer is no, then why is that the case? How can you modify things so that they work for next year’s class? I have a drawer organization system that I use to store all my copies and other items for the week. I love it, but I don't use it faithfully, especially when I get swamped. I will continue to use this system, despite my inconsistency, because it works better than anything I have tried before. With my students, I began using reading boxes a few years ago to help them organize their "read-to-self" books. This is a system I love, but I am finding the kids are really hard on the boxes this year: take a look at those tattered boxes. I think at the end of last year, I only had 2 destroyed, and this year it is almost half the class. This is a great system, but I need to do more teaching about caring for their book boxes next year.

These are some of my other organizational hacks that I implemented and love, which I will use again next year. Be warned, all the labels are looking very well-used.

Take Time to Reflect

What were some of your highlights from the year? What were some of your students? Have your students brainstorm about some of the things they liked best about the year. If it has stuck with them, then it is probably a “keeper” activity. Take a moment and jot down some of your highlights as well. This can be quite challenging to do, even at the end of the year, so imagine how difficult it will be in the fall. This is also a good time to do some planning, if only in your head, about things for next year. I often plan to do this and forget, so I hope that simply writing about it here on the blog will spur me to take the time to do it with my students.

I hope you found some helpful pointers or were simply reminded of things you already do and need to do as the year winds down. I am on the final month countdown and will be thinking about these things in the coming weeks.

Lastly, how about saving your sanity right now? As the weeks wind down, it is more challenging to keep students engaged in their learning. I prefer to maintain a predictable routine until close to the end for my own sanity. This summer-themed Spin and Graph center, available in my store now, is perfect for this time of year. Simply print and provide a paper clip for spinning, and you have a center ready to go. It's an engaging and relevant review task and a sanity saver all in one!