Do you give parting comments to your students at the end of the school year? On the last day of the school year~ I would give a letter to each of the students in my 6th grade classes. Here is the last one I wrote the year of my retirement.

Perhaps~ you have letters you'd like to share?

Gail Hennessey

http://www.gailhennessey.com

END OF THE YEAR LETTER TO MY STUDENTS:
Dear...

I heard the kids singing it while riding a bus back from a field trip to Kennedy Space Center.

So lets set the world on fire
We can burn brighter than the sun.

Its the lyrics to the song We Are Young by a group called FUN.

I had also heard my seven-year-old daughter singing the song in the backseat of the car.

The flag went up. My brain was buzzing. I thought to myself Ive got to use this song. I need to rewrite the lyrics and tie it to a lesson I am...

This week~ I challenged my students to make a presentation without talking. Thats right~ mums the word. Instead~ they were required to use whatever technology was available in the classroom to present the information~ which in this case~ involved World War II.

At first~ they looked puzzled but after I suggested the use Google Translate to speak~ for instance~ and powerpoints and slideshow programs to illustrate~ and music to convey emotion~ they began to get the point. To be honest~ Im...

Job experts say most of us will experience burnout in our lifetime.

What is burnout? According to Merriam-Websters dictionary~ burnout is"exhaustion of physical or emotional strength or motivation usually as a result of prolonged stress or frustration." Using that as our definition~ you can see~ as educators~ that it is important to recognize when you might be experiencing burnout and to have creative ways to deal with it. If burnout is generally a loss of motivation~ then keeping it...