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End of the School Year: Focus on the Positive
Featured Author:
Lisa Cooper
Lisa Cooper has taught American History to fourth and fifth graders for the past nine years in a departmentalized setting.
Using the non de plum, Elementaryhistoryteacher, she began chronicling her content knowledge, teaching strategies, and opinions online in January, 2006 at her weblog, History Is Elementary. Her article, Oh, I Love to Tell the Story best profiles Lisa’s passion for the importance of Social Studies instruction.
Lisa resides in Douglasville, Georgia with her husband, two children, and a ten-toed cat that daily exhibits allusions of grandeur.
More articles from this author:
Try to stay focused on the positive instead of the many, many negative things that go on at the end of the year. It is a stressful time with testing, restless kids who think the year is over, and behaviors just seem to grate on your nerves a bit more….not to mention the business of school regarding rumors and facts regarding placements for the next year and those oh so popular performance reviews.
I stay busy with my final letter to each of my students whether I have a contained group of 25 or a departmentalized group of 110. I have sent the same letter since I started teaching and with this year over 500 children have received it. While the body of each letter is the same I spend some time to write a postive personal note for each child. This helps me to focus in on each individual regarding their social and academic growth over the past year. The process helps me to sort out exactly how each and every student played a role in our learning community, and it helps me value each and every student for their personal contribution to my school year. While it’s true that I have to really spend some time thinking about particular students because they might not have been an ideal student, the exercise is extremely valuable to my growth as a professional educator, and I find that as their little bodies leave my room on that last day of school I really do hate to see each one walk out the door, and my tears are genuine.
For a sample of the letter, click here
