✅ Our BIG end-of-year projects list

😲 Tech + engagement = memorable learning

You know when students are interested in learning.

You see it in their eyes. You can hear it in the way they react — or that still silence when you know they’re really paying attention …

… or it’s the healthy buzz in class when they’re working on something in class they love.

How do we design that — and how can tech help?

That’s the focus of my book, Tech Like a Pirate.

Every chapter is packed full of practical ways to not just teach a lesson, but create an experience!

Check out Tech Like a Pirate in paperback or Kindle ebook on Amazon.

PS: We have free book study resources and bulk order discounts for orders of 10+ books. Email [email protected] for details.

💡 THE BIG IDEA 💡

🌶️ Spice up the end of the semester with these final projects

The end of the year is upon us.

Students have acquired all of these valuable skills throughout the year. They’ve done work that they can look back on to see how far they’ve come.

What can we do to make learning meaningful at the end of the year?

One answer: Projects.

Here’s our big list of 15 digital end-of-semester projects, with a few of our favorites below:

1. 🎙️ Create a series of podcasts

Podcasts are a great way to let students unpack what they’ve learned. To think about it and discuss it critically. To bring in other voices — classmates or really, anyone.

An end-of-semester podcast project amplifies student voice — and shows what students have learned.

Suggested resource: GZM Media has made turning your students into podcasters as easy as possible with their podcast about podcast. {Podcast Title Pending} A How to Show for Students is a fantastic resource for anyone interested in the art of podcasting.

Suggested recording tools: 

• Spotify for Podcasters (formerly Anchor)

• Audio Only mode in Flip

In our post, you’ll find how-to tips, a podcast planning template, and more.

2. 🖥️ Create a website

Websites are easier to create than ever — and more attractive, too.

Websites are highly organizational tools. They help students pull information together in sub-pages with headings. By organizing information for their readers, they’re also organizing it and making sense of it for themselves.

Suggested tools: Google Sites, Canva and Microsoft Sway.

Resources:

• 20 Google Sites tips and tricks

• How to make a website in Canva

• Getting started with Microsoft Sway

3. 📖 Tell it as a story

I really believe there is a story in anything. Our brains love stories. It’s how we passed information down through the generations in history.

Instead of relaying lots of facts, how can we put them into a story? Can we frame information through the story of someone who would use them? Can we tell the story of someone who went through what we just studied?

Storytelling techniques are powerful. Consider using vivid language. Pauses. Gestures. Quotes and dialogue.

Ask yourself: How can we use the powerful features of storytelling to make content compelling — or bring out the unique compelling parts of what we’re learning?

Suggested tools: Book Creator or Google Slides/Drawings (see templates below)

In our post, you’ll find resources to get started with Book Creator projects as well as lots of great storytelling templates.

4. 🎲 Make a game

While playing games is a popular and enjoyable way to engage with others, designing a game can be a fantastic way to demonstrate understanding.  Having your students create their own game using the content you studied is a great end of unit activity. 

Students can create a game digitally using one of the game board templates below OR have students use supplies found around the classroom to create a physical game with cardboard, markers, cards, dice, chips etc. The only limit is their imagination!

Suggested tool: Google Slides or PPT, Genially, Paper/Markers/Cardboard/Dice

Resources:

• Game design in the classroom: 8 steps to get started

• How to Make a Game from Gamestorm Edu

• Resources for making games from Gamestorm Edu

• 30 free Google Slides and PowerPoint themes for teachers (See #5 in this post)

• Genially game templates

5. 🫶🏽 Give back with a community service project

The Community Service Capstone Project in Applied Digital Skills is a comprehensive program designed to help students plan, organize, and execute a community service project that benefits their school or local community. This project is part of a lesson collection that encourages students to apply their digital skills in a practical, real-world setting.

These 7 lessons help your students plan, organize, and execute a community service project to give back to their school or community. You can do any or all of them depending on the needs of your class.

• Plan Your Community Service Project: Collaborate with your class using Google Sheets to plan and organize a large-scale project for something you would like to do for your school or community.

• Schedule Project Tasks in Google Sheets: Create a schedule for a community project by collaborating in Google Sheets.

• Manage Project Communication: Manage communication for your large-scale group project with digital tools.

• Write a Press Release: Communicate the important details of a project to the public by writing a press release in Google Docs.

• Design a Website to Promote a Project: Promote a community project by building a website with Google Sites.

• Make a Promotional Flyer: Raise awareness about a project and recruit volunteers by creating a flyer in Google Drawings.

• Share Community Service Project Results: Share the results of a community project with an audience by creating a slideshow presentation.

Each lesson includes tutorial videos for students, an example project, rubric and a lesson plan. These Applied Digital Skills lessons can be assigned directly to Google Classroom.

💡 Looking for MORE ideas?

You’ll find 10 more in our post: 15 ideas for end-of-semester final projects including:

• Create an infographic

• Do a genius hour-style project

• Create a quiz for classmates

• Create an unboxing video

🗄 Template

📂 Reflect with the Learning Dossier template

Let's debrief some of your students' best work! When they reflect on what they've done and how they did it, there are LOTS of benefits:

• identifying what works well so they can do it again

• identifying struggles to learn new strategies to use next time

• seeing how they handled the struggle to increase resilience

• feeling pride in a job well done

• identifying under what circumstances they do their best work

Plus, as the teacher, YOU get to see the thought process and the "behind the scenes" that you might not otherwise.

In this Learning Dossier template, students take a photo or screenshot of work they've done and place it on the left side of the folder. They can rotate a horizontal image 90 degrees so it'll fit. (There's even a draggable paperclip you can put on top!

Then, the student drags red numbered dots onto parts of the image they want to describe in detail. On the right, they write about the assignment, the details for each numbered dot, and a reflection on the activity.

🔗 Get the template in Google Slides

🔗 Download as a PowerPoint

👋 How we can help

There are even more ways I can support you in the important work you do in education:

1. Read one of my six books about meaningful teaching with tech.

2. Take one of our online courses about practical and popular topics in education.

3. Bring me to your school, district or event to speak. I love working with educators!