Spring break is coming up and this is a great way for teachers to relax and get caught up! By this point in the school year, we are exhausted! There are only a couple more months of school left, but it feels like forever. Then, consider all the end of the year activities and testing coming up. It can be exhausting!
However you choose to spend your spring break is fine! You ultimately need to do what’s best for you and your situation. Here are some tips that you could use to make the most of your spring break and finish the school year strong.
1. Relax
Teaching is a hard and sometimes stressful profession. Sometimes the best thing you can do for yourself and your classroom is to relax. Take a break. Refresh yourself. Do absolutely nothing if that helps. This way, you can come back to teaching in a week ready to conquer the rest of the year.
2. Do something for yourself
While you are relaxing and taking a break from teaching, do something you like to do. Read a book you’ve been meaning to but haven’t found the time yet. Go to a movie. Watch Netflix. Walk, hike, paint, draw, whatever you enjoy doing.
Sometimes, I take the spring break time to clean up my personal life. I will deep clean my house, do some projects around my house I’ve been meaning to do, and get my home organized. Sometimes this can refresh you to go back to teaching in a better mindset. I know that I always feel better when I have a clean house.
3. Get a start on cleaning your classroom
Now, if relaxing and doing something for yourself includes working on your classroom that is great too. Spring break is a great time to get started on cleaning and organizing your classroom. I love to start cleaning my classroom towards the end of the year. This makes it so much easier to pack everything up at the end of the year, and makes it easier when you are setting up for next school year.
Here are some ideas of how to get started cleaning your classroom.
- Organize your classroom library
- Declutter papers
- Go through your desk
- Go through teacher books
- Organize one junk cabinet (or all of them!)
Check out some of our articles on organizing your classroom!
6 Tips for a Functional and Organized Classroom Space
7 Essentials for an Organized Teacher Desk
The Best Way to Organize Teaching Resources
8 Tips to Declutter your Classroom
4. Plan for the rest of the year
Another thing you can do during spring break is to plan for the rest of the school year. I like to have a calendar when I do this. For the weeks or days, I will write down what I want to do. This isn’t a lesson plan, just the main idea. I will map out what I want my weeks to look like for the rest of the school year. I might write down lessons I want to do each day or just which standard I want to hit on for the week.
This doesn’t take me a lot of time, but when I’m actually writing the lesson plans for the week having this plan makes it a lot easier and faster.
This is also a great time to look at all the standards you have taught over the year and see how many more you have to teach. This way, you can plan to make sure you are teaching all your standards.
5. Think about test prep
If you are in a grade level that is tested at the end of the year, spring break is a great time to think about how you are going to get your students ready. I like to review content with activities and games. Spring break gives you some time to plan extra engaging activities.
Check out our Ultimate Teacher’s Guide to Testing here for test prep ideas, review activities, testing motivation, and after testing ideas!
6. Projects for after testing
After you finish testing, students are about done and ready for summer break. A great way to keep your students focused and engaged at school is to do projects with them. During these last few weeks of school, I pull out all kinds of project based learning ideas. We do more of the fun and engaging activities that might take more time that we don’t have in the regular school year. Use this spring break week to plan and search for engaging projects for your grade level. Students love the change up of doing projects.
For upper elementary students, check out some of my research projects for the end of the year.
Road Trip Across the United States: A State Research Project
I hope this list helps you during your spring break from school. I know that using my spring break to accomplish something or simply just relaxing from everyday teaching, makes me feel better and ready to conquer the end of the year.
Thank you for Continually Learning with us!
Kyle and Sarah
