That last day

At my secondary school, we always had the same admonishment for the last day before March Break from the administration. Seriously, though, what else would they say except …

“It’s a regular school day and we expect that teaching and learning will take place just like every other day.”

As I was out walking Jaimie in the midst of the big fluffy flakes coming down this morning, I thought about that. In my first couple of years, I did my best to try and make it like any other day. Of course it was met with student resistance “Sir, can we watch a movie like we do in other classes?”

I don’t know whether that was true or not but I wasn’t about to be played. So, yes, there was an attempt to teach something and it never went over well.

First of all, minds were on what might be happening next week and secondly, there never was a full class. Parents would often take kids out of class on the Thursday or Friday to get an early start on a March Break trip skiing or in some warm climate.

My own kids felt the pain – “If I have to go to work, you have to go to school”.

On my Friday This Week in Ontario Edublogs, I started with this….

Would the winning Exactor be last day of classes before the Break and buses not running? 

Well, they called bus cancellations around here early this morning so there were no buses out splashing us as we walked along the slushy roads.

I also had to play the car shuffle game with my daughter which meant a drive halfway across the county and back. There was a bit of snow on the roads but that was about it. Growing up in the snow belt as I did, I know that this wouldn’t even rate a blink back then. I can’t speak for now.

I passed three elementary schools on the trip and the teacher parking lots were full so there was no slowing these folks down.

On the way back, I stopped and I took this picture from the window.

But, I thought of classrooms that would be normally down in population anyway. My old school mostly had students bused and the older ones drove cars. So, the attendance would have been way, way down.

What to do? What to do?

I know that, after those early years, I adjusted my timing. In the computer science classroom, having students write playable games was always a highlight of the year and a ploy to have them write far more sophisticated programs than was actually required for the course.

Students really had an investment in success and the day would see them show up in eager anticipation of doing some more work or tweaking their games. We would also have guests – students that should be in other classes – show up with an excuse note from another teacher indicating that it was OK if they came and worked on their projects.

It worked out incredibly well and that last day was actually really productive. I’m not the only computer science teacher that understood this.

What strategies do you use to make lessons worthwhile that last day before March Break when you would have less than a classroom of students?