What’s in this issue: School culture post testing, Planning with the end in mind, End of Year Projects and Traditions
SCHOOL CULTURE – LIFE POST STANDARDIZED TESTING
GREETINGS TEAM REJUVENATE,
Picture this…. Standardized testing is coming to a close and instructional material has been removed from the classroom environment. Summer is right around the corner and both students and staff are eagerly awaiting the close of the school year. Standard based units ended in time for testing and there is seemingly a lot of time between the last day of testing and the last day of school. You walk through the hallways and see bare bulletin boards, students playing cards, teachers sitting at their desks, and no signs of instruction in sight. Without strategic planning, the last few weeks of school could quickly become a breeding ground for unwanted misbehaviors. As a leader, it has been difficult to see school culture unravel under the guise of a quickly approaching summer break. I have learned a few tricks of the trade to shift the culture into a positive, culminating experience for students, staff, and families. Here are some events that might be helpful to your school community if you are short on time for planning this year, as well as, could make it on your great for next year planning list.
END OF YEAR SCHOOL BASED ACTIVITIES
ANNUAL TRADITIONS
I believe that school based traditions and shared experienced are the fabric for a healthy school community. Traditions such as annual award ceremonies, luncheons, graduations and dances are key opportunities for staff, students, and faculty to celebrate accomplishments. End of year events provides opportunities that the school community can come together, fellowship, celebrate, and be excited to engage in. End of year events can also serve as a trademark specific to your school community and fosters a sense of belonging and school pride. Check out some of these cost and time effective ideas for your school and be sure to share some of your annual end of year events with the Rejuvenate community in the blog.
- Field Day – Field Day is a great opportunity to build in physical activity and a spirit of friendly competition. During the planning phase of field day, consider engaging the physical education teachers and faculty that are interested in planning for field day. If you are short on time, consider activities that involve items that are readily available. In schools where a field was not available, grade teams worked to create building appropriate races such pasta race challenge, human knot, boiled egg races, potato sack races, three-legged race, dodge ball challenge, and basket ball student vs staff games.
- Living Museum – Students were invited to come into school in character of a historic figure that they have learned about in the school year. Social Studies and Humanities leads supported the development of the living museum by developing the rubric for students to follow as they prepared to engage in the living museum. These projects are customizable to your school community at may incorporate speaking, writing, visual presentations, research, use of technology, and even an invention.
- Makers Faire and Science Fairs – Similar to the Living Museum, Science leads worked to create a framework for students to highlight an element of science and engineering from the school year. Given the nature of Science and engineering, the team was careful to also provide language around what materials were appropriate for the faire.
- Math Madness (Final Four) – Similar to the traditional March Madness similar to College Basketball, the math team worked together to engage students in Math Madness. Classrooms work to earn a coveted spot in the grade competition. Grade team winners will work to battle to play in the Final Four Championship.
