Jamie Goodwin
You’ve worked hard throughout your student teaching experience. Now that it’s the last day, you want to leave on a high note. You want to plan a fun but educational experience for your students. Here are some student teaching last day ideas to make it a special time for you and your students.
Play Review Games
By the end of your time together, your students have probably gained lots of new knowledge and skills. Why not celebrate what they have learned through review? And what better way to review the material than through fun teaching games? There are lots of fun review games that you could play with your students, such as Jeopardy. You could also create centers, and have students cycle through the different review games.
Show Gratitude
The last day of student teaching is a great time to express your appreciation to your students, cooperating teacher and administrators. You could present them with a gift and/or letter to let them know how much you appreciate all they did to make your experience great.
Make Memories
Is there a fun activity that goes along with the material that you’ve been studying? Use your last day to do the activity with your students and make some memories in the process. For example, if you’ve been studying farms, you could create ice cream or butter with your students. Then, enjoy the food together!
Get Student Feedback
After assessing your students all semester, it’s time to let them assess you. Have them complete a short survey to tell you what they enjoyed (or didn’t enjoy) during your time as their teacher. You could also ask for ways that you can improve as a teacher. You just might get some great advice you can take with you.
Give Students the Floor
Find out just how much your students have learned by allowing them to take the floor. You could have them teach a concept they learned. You could also have them offer presentations, speeches, etc. For example, if you’ve been studying poetry, have the last day be a poetry slam. Provide snacks and drinks for a fun, relaxed environment for your students.
Build Students’ Confidence
As a teacher, you get to see students in a different light. You notice their strengths, and you see how they grow and evolve. You come to admire them. Why not use the last day to tell your students what you admire about them? More than that, allow the rest of the students to participate. This would be a great way to build the students up and help them see the strengths that others see in them. You could do this by having students:
- Tape a piece of paper to their back. Then, go around writing good things about each other on them.
- Decorate a brown paper bag with their name on it. Allow students to walk around and write notes to each other.
Your students will enjoy reading through their notes and learning the positive things that you and their classmates think about them.
Your student teaching last day should be memorable. It should be a great way to wrap things up and say goodbye to your students. Come up with student teaching last day ideas that your students would enjoy doing, and what you could do to make it a beneficial learning experience, too.
