May 27, 2021
It has been a long and crazy school year, whether you have been at home or on a campus. For those of you that have been students at home, I thought it might be helpful to share some Teacher Tips to help you wrap things up for next year, whether you will still be working from home or plan to return to campus. Taking these steps will help you start next year off successfully!
CLEAR MATERIALS Whether you purchased, printed, borrowed, or created your materials, chances are that you have LOTS of things collected from the year. Start by pulling out all materials and sorting through them. What needs returned? What needs submitted? What needs retained for records? What can go? Can any of it be sold, recycled, or passed on? Making these decisions makes the next step of clearing them a breeze. Recycle or trash anything you don’t need. Post any items for sale or donation on your local community board or drop at a local donation spot. Anything that needs returned or submitted can be taken in one trip. Finally, anything you need to retain can be put into a file folder or binder and marked for the school year. This would also be a great time to deep clean the space since it won’t be in constant use.
INVENTORY SUPPLIES Unless you graduated, you will need some school supplies next year, whether schooling at home or back on campus. Take inventory of what you have and make yourself a shopping list now to pin to your fridge or bulletin board. Then, you can shop sales all summer or be ready for the back-to-school shopping before school starts.
TRANSITION WORKSTATION Unless you will be doing some sort of summer learning program at home or online, chances are you won’t need to keep the workstation set up all summer. Use this time to store away anything that won’t be needed (clean it first, you’ll thank me!) and set up the space for gaming, online lessons, or crafting this summer. Repurposing the space will keep from wasting valuable real estate in your home and allow you to truly relax this summer. Plus, if it’s a shared workspace with someone else still working, it will be a help to them. This is also a great time to talk about how the space will be used next school year and plan for any changes that may need made so you can begin planning or save up for them now.
TRANSCRIPTS Depending on what type of home school choice you made, it may be your responsibility to collect those transcripts and submit that documentation to your local home school/distance learning office yourself. This is the time to take care of it and you don’t want to be surprised when you go to start the next grade that there is no record of completing this one.
PLANS FOR NEXT SCHOOL YEAR Whether you are returning to campus, remaining distance learning, or transferring to another school, whether by promotion or change in venue, be sure all parties are aware and planning for it. Talk to your student about the plans so they can be aware, or even part of the decision, and prepare for it now. Talk to the school and be sure they know your intentions. If you are leaving one location for another, they will need to get records sent over and waiting until the start can delay entry or be a very long wait. If you are returning to on campus, you will want to make sure they have a seat for you and your records to start smoothly and be prepared.
I know you are just ready for summer to start so you can relax and have one less BIG thing to worry about but taking an extra day or two now to get these things resolved will make it a much more restful summer! Enjoy that break, you deserve it!
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