Teacher HACKS: Make the End-of-the-Year More Productive

The end of the school year can be exhaus3ng! Everyone is eager to wrap up grades and finalize IEP’s, but taking a few extra moments now, can take hours off the timme spent getting started in the fall. There are a few hacks to ending this school year that will help create a less stressful START of next school year.

Hack 1: Use end-of-year progress monitoring scores as a starting point for baseline scores for the fall.

You should be able to easily look back at a student’s progress report results and progress notes when you return in the fall. Rather than having to go back into the IEP writing system, student by student, and checking their goals and progress, start a Google Doc or a log. Cut and paste all IEP goals and the 4th quarter progress reports, for each of your students, so it’s easily accessible in the fall when you need to refresh your memory and develop baselines for determining regression.

Hack 2: Document Performance Data

‘Getting up to speed’ is sometimes difficult the first month or so of the school year, especially when students have communication access issues and pre-existing academic performance gaps. Documenting student performance data in a place that you can refer to it when planning for the fall will help keep you sane when the business starts. Keep all student data in a place where you are able to easily access it and are able to easily compare data over time. Create a Google Sheet or an Excel Sheet, so you are able to create graphs of your student’s data.

Hack 3: Download IEPs for student’s you anticipate having in the fall, so you are able to easily access them when you begin planning for next year.

Sometimes we are able to anticipate who we will have for the following school year. If that’s the case, then you can download their IEPs into a folder now, so that you won’t have to rely on being able to access the school’s IEP writing system over the summer. (If you want to read through IEPs while you are off)

Hack 4: Check all HAT (hearing assistance technology) and send in for repairs now, so that its ready to go in the fall.

Have all HAT systems turned in at the conclusion of the school year, so they can be tested, sent for repairs, sanitized and put together for back to school in the fall.

Another helpful tip is to take a picture, print it, and include that picture with the HAT system. Then, compare the items that are being turned in to what you started with.

Hack 5: Have your students create a PowerPoint or Google Slideshow about themselves, to email to their teachers the first week of school.

After state testing is over and students start to prepare for summer vacation, it’s often difficult to keep students focused and engaged. Why not have the students create a slideshow now, that they can easily email to their teachers in the fall. Have the student include information about their interests, hobbies, accolades, perceived strengths, and weakness, wishes and dreams, fears, things that help them learn (accommodations and modifications from the IEP, and discuss their hearing loss. In the fall when things are crazy, it’s easy to start conversations with general education teachers when you send them a slideshow and follow up with an in person visit or in-service meeting.

A few minutes now can save teachers time in the fall. Getting yourselves organized now, can take away some of the anxiety when teachers return after summer break.

Author: Michelle Andros

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