Education

As a middle school teacher in New Jersey for the past 14 years in private, charter and public schools,

I always dreaded the last week of school. What am I going to do with the kids?  Grades are in, they know it, how am I going to keep them entertained, much less how was I going to "teach" them?  This year, I decided to embrace the lack of structure and just have fun with the kids. Seventh graders are notoriously difficult, and this particular group of students had been s challenging bunch, to say the least. could I actually have fun with them?  

All students like movies, so we first watched Freedom Writers. They loved it!  I think they liked the cursing, but most of all, I enjoyed watching it with them.  We talked after about the teacher, the administration and the kids living in Los Angeles in the 1990s.  It was in fact a great lesson on change and character.

We then played a series of games, inside and outside. I saw how the students interact with one another, how they interpret rules and how they handle winning and losing--all valuable observations to understanding my students. Finally, we watched James Corden's Carpool Karaoke and then decided to have our own karaoke contest. The students were amazing-they knew all the lyrics to many, many songs!  They were fully engaged, participating, taking initiative and asking for more. 

it wasn't the students that needed to be taught this last week of school, but it was me. I learned that sometimes the lack of structure is good and that through play, we can learn a lot about character and challenges. When pursuing "fun", kids become great students.  Beginning next year, I will switch the last week of school to the first week and make sure to keep my focus on play.