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May 15, 2018

End of Year Worries

Confessions of a Frazzled Teacher

The end of the school year is getting closer and closer! Because of this, I have noticed an increase in poor behavior choices of a lot of my students. After a while of dealing with issues, I have finally reached the root cause - my students are acting up because they are worried about the end of the school year and moving on to a new grade level.

This came as a shock to me. Normally the end of year behavior is kids testing the waters and becoming a bit stir crazy. This group, however, is a very immature group. At times, I feel like I teach tall preschoolers. Overall, they are sweet but clueless.

Since coming to the realization they are just worried, we have made some changes that have helped.

1. I reached out to a fourth grade teacher that many of my students will have next year. She is open to anything I want to try to get the students used to the idea of fourth grade since it will help her!

2. In the classroom, we have spent a lot of time in morning meetings tackling the worries we have. We have a poster in which students can share their fears. As a class, we spend some time each day discussing some fears and how we can deal with them.

3. We also brainstormed a list of questions for the fourth graders. They responded very quickly. My students were relieved by the answers since it wasn't that different from third grade. As they have more questions, we will add to this list.

4. In the future, we plan on visiting this fourth grade class and exploring that wing of the building. Most of the time, we never go that way, so it's a great way for them to get comfortable.

Since starting these regular discussions about fourth grade, I have noticed a decrease in behavior issues. My students are getting excited about this transition. I hope that this continues the rest of the year.

How you preparing your students for the next school year?

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