With remote learning, many teachers and schools have been thinking about how to end their school year in a fun and engaging way. And if you are teaching a grade level where students are moving on to another school next year, you really want to make that last week fun, engaging and memorable for your students since it is your last week with them before they move on.
So in addition to planning a virtual continuation, I have been working hard thinking of the best ways to give students an amazing experience in their last week.
1. Create A End of the Year Digital Escape Room
I knew I wanted to have a fun activity for the last week of school and had a hard time coming up with ideas for what to include. Then it dawned on me that the students can help. I told them that I wanted them to take a survey that I made in Google Forms. I then used their answers to create many of the questions and/or clues for the Escape.
If you are new to Escape Rooms and need something simple and easy then there are a variety of resources. Here are some great ideas from Ditch the Textbook that I used to learn from and great ideas for finding clues. I also found another blogger, (mamateaches.com) who was so kind to post Free escape rooms that only take a google form.
2. Create A Digital Yearbook
As a middle school team we created in Google Slides a Digital Yearbook, where every student had a slide with their name on it. We then posted this in our shared Google Classroom and gave students editing rights during a 1 hour zoom with our students.
Students could add pictures and their own personalized messages to each other and we as teachers could ensure digital citizenship. Then at the end of their yearbook signing hour we closed it and send it out to our students as their own copy.
3. Send Digital or Physical Cards to Your Students
Everyday I would tell my students that I miss them and care about them. And during this time I have learned so much about my students as we were able to build a relationship in a way that may not have occurred in the classroom. Some kids really let you into their daily lives and some were more elusive. Regardless, I felt I had a great connection and wanted to send my students a personal message.
Because I knew my student physical address could change or changed I decided to do this digitally. I decided to create a digital card for each of my students using Google Slides. On our last day, I will see all of them in zoom and will tell them that when they leave zoom they will be receiving an email from me. I got all my slides pre-ready over the past week and saved each of them as a PDF and scheduled them to send to my students. Get your FREE simple and fully editable cards in Google Slides: Get End of Year Cards!
I am sure there are other amazing things that teachers are doing to make this digital remote learning year end in creative ways. I would love to hear your ideas too.
