🗑️ End of year series, part 6: Reader ideas

💻 NEW PD SERIES: Capture and hold student attention

You know what’s tougher than ever right now? Capturing — and holding — students’ attention.

The good news? We’re not helpless.

This fall, I’m teaming up with RocketPD for a brand-new five-session cohort called:

Tech Like a Pirate: How to Create a Buzzworthy Classroom That Captures Students’ Attention — and Holds It.

We’ll talk about attention, relevance, and motivation — and how to connect your instruction with the digital world your students actually live in.

This isn’t about gimmicks or tech for tech’s sake. It’s about using platforms, tools, and strategies with purpose.

📅 Starts November 5, 2025
💡 Five live virtual sessions + access to recordings
🎟️ Discounts available for teams of 5+

Hope you’ll join me — or pass this along to someone on your team who’s ready to rethink student engagement.

PS: Let me know if you’ve got questions — just hit reply and ask!

💻 TECH TIP 💻

🤘 20 ways Google tools can make the end of the year ROCK

When the end of the school year is in sight, it's a time of excitement coupled with the importance of finishing the year STRONG.

• State tests are behind us.

• Many students are working on big projects or papers.

• It can be a great time of reflection on how far students have come.

• It's review time!

Thankfully, some of the tried and true Google tools -- and some that we don't use that often -- can help us make the most of the end of the school year.

In our post — 20 ways Google tools can make the end of the year ROCK — you’ll find these ideas and more …

• Drop detailed "INFO pins" on a map with MyMaps.

• Experiment with AI using Quick, Draw!, Say What You See, and more.

• Make Google Slides engaging with Pear Deck.

• Give students a say in learning with Google docs choice boards.

• Take a virtual field trip with Google Arts and Culture.

• … and more!

💡 THE BIG IDEA 💡

💡 20+ end-of-year ideas from subscribers like you

🏁 End of year series: Part 6 of 6 🏁

So far in our end-of-year series, we’ve covered a lot — projects, templates, brain boosts for state tests, and more.

Now it’s time to hand the microphone (or the keyboard?) over to you!

Ditch That Textbook subscribers like you have been submitting their best tips, tricks, teaching ideas, activities and projects for the past few weeks.

Now, it’s time to see what you all came up with!

Below are seven of my favorites … but I gathered ALL of the ideas submitted to me and published them online in this Google Doc so you don’t miss anything!

🫙 Jar of Gratitude

Submitted by Kristin Daley Conti

I really don't like the idea of awards at the end of the year. Especially if you give out a lot, because that still leaves a whole bunch of students out, and it is almost worse than just giving out one or two to those "elite" students.

So instead of awards … I tell them to check their email on their way home, because I have sent them all a "Jar of Gratitude".

Here is what you need:

• A Google Sheet (student first name and email)

• A pre-made template ( here is an example)

• Autocrat Google Add-on

During the year (or even in the last few weeks, it doesn't really take that long, if you do a little at a time - I have 100 students), I write a short, personal blurb about why I am thankful for them. Then on the last day of school before I head down to our award ceremony, I run Autocrat to automatically send students their jar of Gratitude. Alternatively, you could easily print these out using the same system.

📫 Dear Future Student

Submitted by Rachel Cox

DEAR FUTURE STUDENT: I also like to include a "Dear Future Student" question in my reflection. What advice would students give to future students in the class? Students' comments can help me to reflect on my class, and sometimes students offer good suggestions for future years. Students' comments can also change my perception of what student learning and experiences have been in my class.

END OF YEAR REFLECTION: One end-of-year task that I always like to include is an end-of-year reflection (usually as a Google Form) from my students (via Larry Ferlazzo).

THE OFF-TOPIC WHITEBOARD: Also, in one of my chatty middle school classes, we keep a running list of interesting (but off-topic) topics that my students bring up in class (best soccer jersey, chess strategy, sports around the world, archaeology, British vs. American English) on the side of the whiteboard. As the end of the year approaches or when we have a few minutes, we read about or discuss these topics. That way, we keep the focus on our academic topic of the day but still recognize interests and encourage interesting questions.

👧🏻 Something Old, Something New; Something Me, Something You

Submitted by Tia Miller

This is designed for seniors who are graduating. They get all sappy at the end of the year (and very distracted by the nearness of graduation), so presenting these is a nice way to wrap up a class. Students can present this in whatever way they want (most choose a slide show) as long as what they show fulfills the description.

• Something old (something to represent your childhood)

• Something new (something to represent your senior year)

• Something me (something to represent me, your teacher, or this class)

• Something you (something to represent you)

• Something to keep (something you want to take with you as you move forward; could be an object or a lesson learned, words of wisdom, etc.)

• Something to give (thank yous for people who have helped you get to this point)

• Something to leave (could be something you want to leave behind as you move forward OR the legacy you want to leave here at the school)

• Something to live (a goal/dream for your future life)

😸 Humane Society Benefit Project

Submitted by Ms Muschweck

I like to finish the year with a project to help animals at our local Humane Society in possibly getting a forever home. I would contact the Humane Society by email. The manager is quick to reply and forward an animal name, photo, and general information about each animal. I show the photo and name of the animal on the white board. Each student will have a chance to select their animal. The students are given a poster board.

Directions for poster board: Students will create a poster of their animal.

1. Photo of animals

2. Name of animal

3. General Information about the animal

4. Breed, if given, will research the breed information

5. Give 1 or 2 Interesting facts about their animal or breed.

6. (Contact Information) Humane Society Name and Address, phone number, etc.

The students also created fliers and google slide-show for their animals, which all of these items were given to the Humane Society. The project allowed the students to give back to their community and show each student how they could make a difference in someone else’s life.

🗣 End-of-Year Classmate Speeches

Submitted by Steph Sukow

One of my favorite activities is having students give end-of-the-year speeches about each other in class. Each student is randomly assigned a person in our class. Students then create an informal speech and share it with the class that celebrates the person they were assigned. This is a great way to build classroom culture and celebrate every student in class at the end of the year. End-of-the-year celebrations are incredibly powerful and help students to stay engaged as the weather warms.

🎵 Class Album Cover

Submitted by Katherine Cartwright

Every month this year I have had students pick a song of the month. After testing, we are going to make an album cover using Adobe. Nothing groundbreaking, but it will be a fun wrap up.

Google Drive Clean-Up

Submitted by Abby Pagryzinski

We created some slides that teachers can use to help their students clean up and organize their Google Drive:

• K-5 Google Drive Clean-Up

• 6-12 Google Drive Clean-Up

T-Shirt Class Reflection

Submitted by Tracy Rendleman

In my biology classes, I use the T-shirt template you included in a free slide deck a few years ago. I ask all of the students to design a T-shirt that reflects what they learned in class. I show these to the class, and the students explain why they selected their design. Then, everyone votes for their favorite. It is a lot of fun, and I get great feedback on what's stuck and what they enjoyed the most about class.

👋 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!