Happy June!

Happy June to all teachers and students! You made it this far and are so close. We know/remember how incredibly exhausting this time of year can be between the heat, endless end of the school year events and requests, report cards, cleaning and packing up your classroom, and of course, the bittersweet farewells with your students.

If you still have some time with your students, our Pride Books 2022 post will give you some read aloud ideas for Pride this month. You can also work with your students on setting up for Summer Reading in a joyful and fun way (we hope).

We wrote about End of the School Year Activities in 2022 and in 2019 "What is always on your end of year list?" A quick 10 always on there items from us because we have so many and love traditions and making memories with our classes.

Lastly and maybe most importantly, don’t forget to think ahead about what YOU need this summer. Sending You Peace & Summer Wishes always, and if you have the free time and mental bandwidth, here are some Summer Professional Development Ideas.

Happy Pride and end of the school year. You did it!

What I’ll Remember: Top 4 Silly Pranks & Other Foolishness

We’re almost there, we're almost there! As I’ve been thinking about what I’ll take with me from this school year, when I’m at my most positive (which is rare, especially these days to be honest!) I find myself holding onto the goofy moments of community with students. We’ve written about simulations we’ve designed to discuss inequity or how we incorporate representation into our curricula... but today I wanted to just highlight some foolishness we’ve done in the past, which are some of my favorite memories. 

1. The Annual Birthday Prank

To be perfectly honest, we keep kid birthdays low key. They become difficult to keep up with and there’s always the issue of off school year birthdays or inequities or over the top parental moves. However, we like to model how fun it is to celebrate others together. Our tech director is someone who helped everyone out, is a delightful human being, and we felt was often under acknowledged. We made it a tradition in our classroom to birthday prank him every year and it was always so fun. My favorite was when we made up this slideshow lesson we wanted to show the students and he helped us set it up before his birthday. On the day of his birthday we called his office alarmed that it wasn’t working OH NO PLEASE COME HELP! The students all hid in the classroom and we turned off the lights and when he walked in we turned on Stevie Wonder’s Happy Birthday, the kids shouted Happy Birthday, and projected a Soul Train dance line video that we all danced around to for 5-10 minutes and hung out. It was simple, free, and a blast. 

2. Twin Day Prank 

We loved our principal’s assistant/ front desk extraordinaire/ receptionist. Twin Day during Spirit Week often comes with bumps and bruises with hurt feelings and left out moments. We guided our class (and made it seem like it was their idea, to be honest) to agree to the whole class being a huge set of ‘twins’ (I don’t know what you call 30 twins). We brainstormed what we could wear and how we could ALL match. The catch: we were all going to be our front desk extraordinaire. I know printing can be a pain at schools but this was worth it. We printed her face 34 times and each student wore a black top (some inside out) and sunglasses. We all fastened her face onto the front of shirts and surprised her in a big walking line of mini-mes to the front office. We took a group photo with her laying down in front like the queen she is and all of her ‘twins’ and it was hilarious and so memorable. She still has that photo framed to this day. 

3. The Surprise Class Pet 

I don’t know why (I do, I’m weird) but I love a quirky purchase (sigh, capitalism, I know I am working on it)! It has its perks sometimes though and that includes bizarre purchases that have resulted in memorable ‘class pets’. We never wanted to deal with changing the water for a fish or animal care in general but a class pet can be tons of fun. The image for this post is similar to what I brought back from a trip to New York one time. It was named and beloved. It was laid on, read to, had stories practiced to it during our storytelling unit before performances, was recreated in classroom art, and was the subject of a ton of jokes. We also had a large wooden painted parrot I brought back from Nina and my trip to the DR which was a hit and a fun class pet one year, too. 

4. Pomelo hat type challenges 

Challenges with no point (I mean, there is always a point, creativity, flexible thinking etc.) are a great punch of foolish fun. After sharing pomelos for Lunar New Year we had a tradition similar to Whose Line Is It Anyways of students trying to wear the Pomelo peels in the most fabulous way. Everyone got their picture taken with their style and neighboring teachers participated too. The creative ideas were endless and that class ended up liking those pictures so much they were their photos for most things that school year. There is nothing quite like a low stakes unconventional who wore it best or how can you use this prop challenge. 

Bonus Small Foolishness 

1. Tape in the door - a piece of clear tape across the door in the morning or at the end of the day and so foolish but also fun. Someone will walk into it. Someone will have a giggle. 

2. Surprise guests - inviting a special guest, someone special to do the read aloud (a favorite old teacher, a teacher of a different subject, an older student they all love, an author you’ve read the books of) is such a fun surprise treat. We are big on preparing our students for success with expectations etc, but sometimes these surprises are really worth it. 

3. Googly eyes.. Everywhere. I know this can be chaos. I will say though, that it makes a classroom a lot happier and kids will come up with added challenges for finding all of them or earning ways to add another one somewhere where other students have to find it. You can choose of course how to roll this out and think through the ways it will and can be a distraction, but I’ve had a blast with a very googly eyed classroom a few times. 

4. Food or art treat/party - especially at the end of a read aloud! Food is love! Food is memories! Food can be complicated money wise and allergies wise (and now COVID times wise) but even if it is just everyone getting a piece of fruit that was mentioned in the read aloud and eating it together, it can be a great memory to eat together and talk about food. We have also used this in the past as a way to put eager parents to work (have them go pick up food/bring in food and help with set up and clean up) and as a way to expose kiddos to a range of communities and cultures. 

5. As the year wraps up- making room cleaning (and having them help!!) fun. Music, raffle for classroom signs and posters etc for them to take home. 

6. Music in general - Like food, any memorable songs or class songs for a year create deep and lasting memories. Every time you hear that song or the kids do, they’ll remember that class or that moment. Dance parties, morning music, morning or closing meeting music, an original class music video (we’ve made a few of these, hilarious and worth it) all become soundtracks to your year. 

Potential Fun for Next Year 

• Kudos - we’ve done kudos at the end of each day as a way to celebrate one another. You can have yours be teacher led, choose one student to shout out whomever they want, or choose a few people, you know your class and what would be best management of course. We have a clap we do at the end that makes it feel a little more celebratory (ie: “I’d like to give a kudos to Ms. Sethi for helping me with my Math. Kudos on 2, 1-2”. Everyone together: *clap clap*)

• Class Logo - we’ve done this as part of our classroom contract at the beginning of the year along with redesigns and personal logos. Art is another way to have some fun and connect and having a class logo is something a few of our more artsy classes have taken pride in (and even put the class rules/values into)! One year we had kiddos so into it they asked us to make copies and then they all had them on their computers and in their lockers. Who needs a Nike swoosh when you have original awesome art like that?

End of the School Year Activities

Happy June! You made it! This has been quite the year, so now it is time to celebrate everything you all have accomplished together and have some fun! I have a number of different traditions or fun activities that I love for the end of the school year. We wrote a post a few years back with some of our favorites, but I have even more ideas that are listed below.

• Write a poem for your class! We had an introduction and conclusion stanza or two as well as two lines for each student. We definitely took liberties with the rhyming, but it’s something students really love and appreciate. We’ve heard about the poem as a fond memory or something students have held on to years after (we also gave each student a copy to take home).

• A photo slideshow is always fun and appreciated! It’s been harder with COVID, masking, being in two separate groups, etc, but I’ve learned that whatever photos you share, it’s more about the memories. I do make sure I have a photo of every student and as many adults from the building as possible so no one feels left out, but that’s usually not too difficult for me as I try to take photos all year. You can use different free online programs for slideshows or Iphoto or Google Drive/Slides.

• Tie dye! Last year, my school had t-shirts made to commemorate the uber challenging year we had all been through, so we tie dyed those shirts. We ordered a kit online and were able to do it all outside, although we had to rearrange our schedule a bit with the Music teacher so we could have multiple adults with the students in smaller groups. I’ve also tie dyed in the classroom with just 2-3 students at a time over an entire afternoon while other students worked on something else. It definitely helps to have a sink, but it’s not essential! You can ask students to bring in a t shirt from home and order some backups or even tie dye socks, headbands, scarves, or anything really. Last year, since we didn’t need students to bring in shirts from home, we were able to make it a surprise, and it was so exciting for our students (as you can see from the screenshot above).

• Ask for students' feedback! We wrote about this before here and here, if you’d like to see more details or comments from actual students. We’ve found that creating a Google form or something similar and allowing students to submit their feedback online really feels official and private for students. Some don’t write a lot, while others choose to share all of their opinions and thoughts. If nothing else, it’s great modeling of being reflective and caring about their opinions and voices.

• Have a class “auction” or giveaway for things around the classroom. You’d be amazed at how excited students get about “winning” charts from the year or other equally mundane objects! It is fun and it helps you start clearing your walls. I usually just do a raffle and pick names for each object. Students can pass and have their name go back in the jar or take an object and then later do a trade. It’s fun and brings out a lot of memories from the year about different activities, projects, and more.

• Make memory books and/or provide time to sign yearbooks (if your school has them and they are accessible for everyone). My school, being an independent school, gives every student a yearbook. However, I still find making memory books a fun time to reflect on growth and fond memories. You can find various templates online (example here) or make your own that is tailored to your class! It always amazes me what students list as their favorite memories and it is fun to see what they write about their teachers. It’s also a great way to take stock of the year and remember that we all had our ups and downs.

• Take photos! This one really is as simple as it sounds - make sure to take photos of all of these joyful moments! I like to get some more whole class shots and candid ones of the students having fun. You can add them to the photo slideshow or even print some out for students. I’ve also made a private folder online that can be shared with parents in the past.

• Write notes for students: my co-teacher from the last three years started this tradition of writing notes for each student. We put a photo of the student from this year on the note as well, and we both write something about their year in our class. We’ve also given program assistants the opportunity to add their notes as well. We usually give these to students on the last day of school as a parting gift. I’ve done something similar with bookmarks in the past.

• Thank adults in the building who are often forgotten by families! This one is really important during the entire school year. Many of the people who are indispensable, keep us safe, take care of us, and keep the school running are often forgotten in the flurry of end of year thank yous. We always write notes to the people who clean up our room, take care of our building, take care of our health, and keep our school running. Make sure you know how to spell everyone’s name and how they prefer to be addressed. I often put up a photo gallery with names underneath to make sure students can make the name and face connection and spell names correctly.

• Fun projects:  Math, geography, reading, free write, and more! If you have time (we never do, but sometimes manage to squeeze something in) and freedom over your curriculum, try out an end of year project! Students love reflecting on the year and getting more time to independently study or learn about something they enjoyed. I’ve done these in many different ways and every classroom is different, but two things that really help set projects up for success are clear parameters and a sharing component. You can see the checklist for the Math project we did last year above as an example. CHIPS stands for capitalization, homophones, impressive effort, punctuation, and spelling.

• Savor your growth and how far you have come! If you wrote letters to yourselves or made new year’s resolutions or set any goals, now is a great time to revisit them and see how you surprised yourself and maybe even surpassed some goals. Make sure you do this for yourself as well, with or without your student. This was a tough year and you made it!

• Write letters to next year’s class of ___ graders/English students/etc. The advice will be hilarious and heartfelt.

• If you have some students who are anxious about the transition to a new grade or teacher (and you probably do), try to arrange some kind of meet and greet or tour of their future classroom if possible.

Congratulations teachers, it is almost summer! You did it!

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"What is always on your end of year list?" A quick 10 always on there items from us.

We were asked what is always on our end of year to do list.. Below are a few pieces we always have on that list. Ironically, for me the end of the year has so many of its own mini lists and rituals. 

A few things that are always on there for me are: 

1. Write thank you notes (this includes personal ones I write, and also putting aside class time and guiding the students to reflect and write their own. These include notes to students, ridiculously reliable, wonderful maintenance staff, an amazing receptionist, a family that has been really kind, a colleague/peer that helped you out, a class of students you used to have that is graduating etc..) 

2. Log that all our classroom books have been returned! Have students help out, remind families etc. 

3. Set aside class time to solicit student feedback. We wrote blog posts about how and why we do this in 2017 and 2018. End of year feedback from students (post from 2017), Always Ask for Student Feedback! (post from 2018). Our work of teaching and learning is grounded in reflection, this is so important! 

4. Take pictures / make a slideshow/ do some sort of comparison from beginning of the year end of the year. This can be photos from then and now, opening the letters we wrote to ourselves in September, or comparing work from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. 

5. Assign a lot of student helpers to take things down/ clean! 

6. Play more games/ plan for fun moments together, this is the last time this learning community will be together in exactly this way and time will fly and the year will be over. We love making a point to just enjoy each other as the year winds down. 

7. Prepare summer reading lists  (we also wrote a blog post on this, Setting Students Up for Summer Reading) --  foster continuous reading excitement (and let them enjoy giving you and one another recs!), and set them up for success to have books they know they want to get at the library or the bookstore. (We have tons of posts on books we love, here is the most recent one about books we extra loved for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month) 

8. Finish that all class read aloud! We wrote about how we wrap that up in an older post (Looking Back to Look Forward). 

9. Reflect- use that student feedback, consider the pieces that worked and haven't worked, and congratulate yourself. There is always more we could do or a piece that could have gone better or a student we wish we reached or supported better. Make note and also celebrate another great year of fostering forever learners! 

10. Plan an end of school meal that you're excited about (for me, it's usually an Ethiopian dish.. or sushi! I just got hungry writing that). We both just love food so.. yep! 

This piece was also published on Medium through McGraw Hill’s The Art of Teaching Project!

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Always Ask for Student Feedback!

We try and end every school year by asking our students for their feedback and reflections. Students love this as it is their turn to evaluate us for a change! We love modeling how asking for and receiving feedback is part of learning and growing, as well as demonstrating our commitment to lifelong reflection and learning. Also, I’m always surprised by what students remember, appreciated, and enjoyed. Sometimes, the things they complain about during the school year are the things they say they enjoyed the most at the end.

Some patterns we’ve noticed over the years are that students tend to especially appreciate amazing read alouds, the well stocked and curated classroom library (and personalized book recommendations from their teachers), experiences (for example field trips or guest speakers), games (and fun!), and their teachers (especially encouragement and support).

Here are the questions we asked and some of our students’ responses (in order for the evaluation to feel more exciting and grown up, we had our 3rd graders fill out a Google form. This way, they could choose to be anonymous - new vocabulary word! - or not. We worked up to having students independently use a Google form all year, so having handwritten feedback might be a more realistic/comfortable option earlier in the year). Student responses are in italics:

What is one of your highlights (something you enjoyed) in 3rd grade?

• I enjoyed playing games because I felt like we were all one family.
• woking on essays because it's a project and I like projects especially ones that take a long time and essays take long that's why I like essays. I also like social studies because we did things that involve interacting with each other
• The teachers

What was something that didn't feel good (or was a challenging moment) for you?

• Getting pushed and pushed and pushed (keep going -- I finished.. now keep going moooore! keep going!). I just wanted to be done sometimes! This was sort of a good thing too.
• Learning to type was challenging and frustrating because I was lagging behind. But eventually I got the hang of it. (-:
• Learning to be okay if you make a mistake

Is there anything you are still thinking about (from what we learned this year)?

• What my learning was like ( how much I learned).
• No, well not that I know of.
• What I learned is that you should never judge somebody by their skin color because that is wrong!
• How many essays we could write, how many more topics we could write with essays and how many more chances could we have had if we only did that in writing. I would like to make essays the whole year! no one wanted to do essays when you first said it, but then everyone wanted to do essays once we did it once or twice.

What could your teachers have done better to support and/or challenge you?

• Not a lot. Really nothing because I expanded my learning this year a lot.
• To support me, you could have worn very awesome shirts! (This is hilarious. Clearly, I need to go shopping for awesome shirts before the school year starts!)
• giving me more books.

What did your teachers do well (to support and/or challenge you)?

• They were always helping me and making me a better writer through their advice.
• well, they pushed us more to work harder and have more fun while we work not just ' oh work, blech!' it was fun learning too, not just learning school blech! It was fun, because our teachers are fun! yay.
• Gave us a lot of game time!!!!

If you could change something about 3rd grade, what would it be? Why?

• It would be using our computers more often because, using computers helps us type faster and better (more stamina). (They were only allowed to use computers during Technology class once a week and for “publishing” their writing).
• Something that I would change about 3rd grade is the amount that we have in writing and Social Studies because those are my two favorite subjects in Homeroom.
• I would change 3rd grade to allow a 3rd grade pet I would change it because I think it would be the little 3rd grade HERO and we would have a good laugh with it
• Maybe they could buy more books. (This is amazing because we went way over our budget because we bought so many books! But of course we can always buy more - there are so many wonderful books out there).

Any other thoughts or things you think we should know:

• 3rd grade was the BEST ever like if I could go on vacation I would go to 3rd grade
• I love your games. They make the world less depressed.
• NOPE (most students said no or just didn’t answer this question).
• That I love reading a lot and I have a big imagination.

While we loved hearing from our students, we reflected that asking 3rd graders about the entire school year on one survey might have been too much at once. This upcoming school year, I hope to find a way to get student feedback throughout the year. Some ideas I am considering are reflections after big projects or at the end of units or maybe something more open-ended. I will keep brainstorming and will hopefully have some more feedback to share this fall!

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Looking Back to Look Forward

As the beginning of the new school year approaches (or Teachers’ New Year, as I like to call it), memories and reflections from last year always pop up as we decide what we want to keep, adapt, and get rid of as we start anew. This year, Gabby and I are moving from teaching 5th grade to teaching 3rd grade, so the calculation is even more complex.

The first way we close the year is by literally closing a book. We also finished our class read aloud, Walk Two Moons, on the very last day of school, which felt perfect - Walk Two Moons (if you haven’t read it, RUN and pick it up!) has a complex, multi-faceted ending with lots of emotions, just like the end of the school year. It also reminded me for the umpteenth time how much I love read alouds and how they are an essential teaching and learning tool, but also wonderful for community building because we all grow to care about the characters and wonder what will happen next together. In fifth grade, read aloud is a fun and touching reminder of how young our students are - when they are listening intently and their eyes widen at a cliff-hanger, they forget about being “cool” and almost in middle school and are children again. Multiple students asked for reassurance that we would finish the read aloud before the year ended - even students who tried really hard throughout the year to make it known that they, “don’t like to read.”

Our literal ‘looking’ back together with our class is a photo slideshow. The slideshow we make is comprised of group photos, exciting things we experienced together like field trips, funny moments, photos with visitors, and proud moments (publishing parties, sharing our Social Studies projects, etc). I used kizoa to set it up and the students love the special effects and soundtrack, but really any photo slideshow recapping the year would probably have the desired effect. Students excitedly comment on photos, remember projects they loved (and were challenged by), and laugh at the silly group photos. Thinking back on our students’ reactions, I am reminded how community building in the classroom is so important and is an essential first step of back to school life.

And we end the reflective time together with a class poem that Gabby and I write for them. Each stanza is about one student and has memories, inside jokes, and champions their growth over the school year. We read it together and take turns (we like to think this is very dramatic!) and each year we find it is our best way of sincerely sharing our love for them and sending each student off with our best wishes. This past year, after we read the poem we wrote, we gave the students a break to go to the bathroom or get a drink of water. One student came back to report that two other students were in the bathroom crying because the poem made them feel so emotional. I went to check on them, and they hugged me and said this year was amazing and the poem reminded them of everything wonderful about it.

My favorite part of the poem (apart from the slightly ridiculous rhymes we manage to pull off) is watching students react to it. When they hear their name and personalized stanza, they look amazed (and very young all over again). It is such a satisfying culmination of our time together. In third grade, we will definitely have to keep up this tradition! We also will have to continue to focus on goal setting and reflecting on our learning, as we often reference something students have learned or worked on in their personalized stanza. The specificity of the way we name their actions and hard work really resonates with students and makes it clear how much we honor their efforts.

We are entering another school year after a summer which has been eventful and frequently painful for many. We are gearing up for the lessons on skills, but also the necessary tough conversations. And looking back, we’re reminded that think these touchstones that closed our community with full hearts last year, will probably (most definitely) transfer to being important things we bring to 3rd grade!

As we look forward, we will take with us the excitement of shared community stories, the wonderful fun of documenting and focusing on the process (NOT the product) of the year, and the importance of telling our students that we hear them, we see them, and we care for them.

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End of Year Feedback from Students

Well into summer, I finally have some time to sit down and reflect on the school year! One piece I wanted to take a closer look at was the end of year evaluations from students (of us!). Gabby and I created a Google Form with seven required questions and an optional anything else you’d like to add (they are all listed or summarized below in bold font). We then asked our students to give us honest, thoughtful feedback as part of our reflection and planning for next year. We find that using a Google Form and having students respond on their computers often causes them to write more and feel more “anonymous” and empowered to be honest.

There are many reasons why we ask our students for feedback. Primarily, we do want to know what they are taking away, thinking, feeling, and reflecting and student evaluation of teachers is an important and often overlooked resource. We also want to give them an opportunity to practice using their voices and saying what works/doesn’t work for them. Also, we want to model being open to feedback and self-reflective! On top of all of these reasons, 5th graders are hilarious and we wanted to see what they would say.

Our first question was a highlight (something you enjoyed) from 5th grade.

Some trends among the answers were:

Storytelling:

“One of my highlights for fifth grade was the Storytelling unit. I LOVED doing it because A: I love hearing stories and B: because it was really fun to perform and learn about things I never knew about my dad (I interviewed him) and details about things that happened to me when I was little.”

Simulations:

“I enjoyed the simulations like the bead making food eating office working simulation because it showed us how it feels like to be less than or not to give up”

Social Studies/current events

“I loved reading and talking about current events because it was interesting to find out what was happening in the world. Though I didn't enjoy annotating, I think it will help me in middle school.”

Funny/Unexpected:

“Halloween”

“I enjoyed how understanding the teachers were. Like, one time I did all my homework but I forgot my homework folder, and I was so disappointed. Instead of getting mad at me, you guys just said I could borrow someone else's word study sheet since it was Friday and I needed to take the word study test. Even though I was sad, it didn't go as bad as I thought it would go, and that was a highlight of my year.”

“I really liked word study, even though I am not the best speller in the class word study has helped me a lot. Also I loved doing the quizzes at the end of the week and getting are grade back ( even though sometimes it wasn't the best grade. ) Overall word study was a fun part of homework in 5th grade that I enjoyed.”

I love that word study was something that at least one student enjoyed, as it is annoying for us (teachers) to put together and grade and most students complained about the word study homework incessantly.

Next, we asked what was something that didn't feel good (or was a challenging moment) for you?

Trends:

Too much HW

Writing by hand

Virginia Indian Case studies (but felt proud of getting through them)

My personal favorite response:

” I think that the puberty/health and wellness was challenging for me because I would laugh at everything you would say about it.”

I love this because this was how I usually feel when teaching Health & Wellness.

Next question: How did Social Studies feel for you? Was it too hard, too easy, or just right? Which parts? Why?

These are important questions for us to ask because sometimes we think our content is too challenging and intense and wonder if some of our content is more appropriate for middle school.

“Just right. I loved SS this year. It was fascinating [sic], and sometimes scary, but always the truth.”

Good to hear! Most students said just right, or if it was hard at times, they later expanded their understanding.

Is there anything you are still confused about from Social Studies? Is there anything you are still thinking about?

“I am still thinking about The Trail of Tears. This event made me wonder how much of history is covered up, and how much of history do we still have to find?”

“I left SS this year with some questions like "why does the world have to be so cruel\rude\angry when we can all just focus on the good things?" and "why blame other people for things they did not do? As [another teacher’s name] says, 'life is ment to build people up, not break them down.'" But those questions were things that I wanted to strive to answer (and maybe change) when and as I grow up.”

These are issues I continue to think about as well..

What could your teachers have done better to support and/or challenge you?

“call on me more randomly because i don't usually raise my hand”

I love this because at the time you know they resented us for calling on them when they didn’t raise their hands!

“During this school year I have learned that saying "no" and "i don't agree" -- not just exclamation points !!!! -- is totally OK (thanks Ms. Arca) but this time I really don't think there is anything I can add in this column, because this time, there really IS nothing to say!”

What did your teachers do well (to support and/or challenge you)?

“They were willing to help and had really good and helpful advice and if you didn't ask to meet with them they might ask or hover over your work to help and support you and I liked that.”

“The teachers did well in reminding us that if we need help, you need to ask. I liked this because it got us ready for sixth grade, and made us feel independent. It also made us feel supported to know that we have have help if we need it.”

“One out of the many things the teachers did well to support me this year is non-pushy random check ins because I know that I am the kind of person who doesn't come up to a teacher right away if something is bothering me -- though i probably should! -- and so those non-pushy random check ins are really helpfull for me.”

Nice to hear - obviously we will continue to check in with and push our students, but it’s good to know it is appreciated (eventually). I also find the awareness that learning to ask for help is a life skill impressive.

If you could change something about 5th grade, what would it be? Why?

General trend: more simulations, less homework, don’t change anything!

“I would make more simulations! I loved the simulations, they were so fun, and it was cool to be "in the shoes of" the thing/person/religion you guys are trying to teach us about. Also, it was great to learn things in a fun way.”

Any other thoughts or things you think we should know:

We always ask, just in case, but responses were along the lines of no, 5th grade was great, see my earlier answers.

It’s comforting to hear that students don’t feel confused or overwhelmed by the curriculum and appreciate the honesty and reality. We fully expected storytelling to be a highlight, because it is amazing, but also because it is the last literacy unit of the year and our Final Stage show is the culmination of our year together.

I also wasn’t surprised by the positivity around simulations, but the self-awareness and reflectiveness shown when students were able to say that they had moments of empathy or experiencing someone else’s perspective (although, of course, a simulation is NOT THE SAME as real life).

Asking students for feedback is always surprising, amusing, and gratifying. In this age of all kinds of evaluation systems for teachers, I find that I am the most motivated by my observations, student work or growth, and student feedback. It doesn’t have to be formal or written, but I hope to continue to incorporate student feedback and reflection into my teaching next year. How do you ask for and receive student feedback? How does it inform your teaching, learning, and planning? We'd love to hear!