We are heading into the final months of the school year here in Manitoba. If you’re also winding down your school year, we want to cheer you on as you finish strong! We’ve definitely had school years where it felt like we were dragging ourselves to that finish line on the brink of burnout, feeling disorganized and overwhelmed. We’ve also had really fun final stretches, with loads of rich, meaningful learning in our classrooms and feeling great physically and mentally. In this episode, we’re sharing 5 strategies to help you finish your year strong.
If you’re ready for more ideas at the end of this episode, we’re sharing 5 more strategies to finish strong at our Teacher Success Squad community call on May 9. Head to kgeducation.ca/successsquad to register!
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Celebrate
We encourage you to take time to celebrate as the year winds down!
Educators often celebrate with students by creating portfolios or a video, hosting a ceremony or community/family event, but what about a celebration for YOU and all you’ve accomplished this year as a teacher?!
Some ways to celebrate your school year:
- a staff outing to a local restaurant, greenhouse, boutique
- staff potluck or barbecue
- Happy hour with your friends
- A family activity such as hiking or a movie night
- Reflective journalling on your highlights and challenges this year
- Looking back on photographs from the school year
- Writing a blog post or social media post
Recommit to Your Own Wellness
Taking care of yourself remains important, even when things get hectic at year-end. We suggest picking one or two things to focus on to get you through the end of the year. Here are some suggestions for recommitting to your own wellness:
- walking at lunch break or recess
- carving out time before after school for your workouts
- trying the 3 short practices in our free Teacher Wellness Toolkit
- reinforcing and sticking to your boundaries
- drinking enough water
- writing down what you’re grateful for
- pausing for a deep breath when your feeling stressed
- trying our 7 day free challenge at kgeducation.ca/journal
- getting enough sleep
For more ideas on wellness, check out Episode 20 3 Ways to be a Better Teacher in 2023 or Episode 4 Wellness for Busy Educators.
Update your Resume & Cover Letter
Even if you don’t plan to change jobs this year or in the near future, keeping an ongoing file of your experience can make it much less stressful when you do want to apply for a new role. Put a reminder in your calendar to do this yearly or every 6 months so you remember.
We suggest keeping an ongoing resume file with:
- job experience, including the grade and subjects you taught
- presentations you’ve given at conferences or workshops you’ve done for colleagues
- extracurriculars and coaching
- committees you worked with such as a professional learning committee or wellness committee
- boards or organizations you’ve worked with outside of your school division
If you are applying for jobs this year, you may be interested in checking out the recorded workshop we have available on interviews and job applications, including a set of sample interview questions. This is available for monthly and yearly members of Teacher Success Squad. You can get access to the tips for job applications and interviews instantly when you register at kgeducation.ca/successquad
Get Outside
There is just something about being outdoors that makes us feel great!
You might try heading outside with students for:
reading: whole class, small group, partner reading or individual reading
physical education: so many games, exercise routines and sports can easily be moved outside
a scavenger hunt: students might be hunting for physical materials or you can add a digital aspect to your hunt by asking learners to take pictures of items or concepts for their hunt. Check out this blog post for using Goose Chase for your scavenger hunt or visit this post for how to use Seesaw for scavenger hunts.
community activities: get outside and take your class to the grocery store, library or seniors’ centre
chalk writing: use chalk for math practice, word work or art creations
math story problems with natural materials: if one of your math outcomes is related to story problems, let nature inspire those stories
science experiments: grab your supplies and head outside to conduct those experiments!
design challenges: so many design challenges can easily be moved outside
Think Ahead to Next Year *if you can*
We don’t always have the capacity to think like this at the end of the year, especially if it’s been a challenging one. However, if there are some efficiencies you can find while you’re wrapping up this year, it can make things easier when you go back to school. For example, when you’re cleaning up your classroom, consider setting aside things you’ll need for back to school and leaving them packed or organized in a labelled container so they are ready to go when you need them.
5 MORE Ideas to Finish the School Year Strong
If you’re ready for more, we’re sharing 5 more strategies to finish strong at our Teacher Success Squad community call on May 9. Head to kgeducation.ca/successsquad to register!
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