Finishing Strong

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The finish line. The pay off. The grand finale. Wrap parties. Graduations. Roll credits. Tying up loose ends. Closure.

There is cause for celebration in the end of all things. No matter the reason for it, there is something to be said for seeing something through to the end. It allows us to know that our work was for purpose. We can move on to the next knowing that the former has ended well.

Schools are constantly in process of moving toward the end of the year. Prom season and memorial day often signal the downward slide toward a summer of opportunity. It is during this brief period of time, at least in the great state of New Jersey, that teachers make the decision of either banging one's head against the wall as they fight nature's magnetic pull of the metallic adolescent attention toward longer days and shorter lists of responsibilities or joining their charges in the march toward a Pied Piper promising bare feet and rolling houses of sweet, frozen temptation.

It is during this time that those of us in education must storm onto those beaches in the minds of students. We must not allow them to look at the end of the school year as the end of learning. It is merely the end of their tenure in that grade. They must see learning as a process that is happening even we're not looking. That comes from their teachers.

So my challenge to teachers is this: Push their thinking. Sure it's the end of the year, and you still have curriculum to get through. It's up to you to get them excited about being there. If you have a great lesson you've been thinking about giving them, do it now! They want to be excited about where they are, not about where they're going because they dread where they are. And that's really the problem. Any student who is telling you the year is over and they're looking forward to summer is really telling you that they're looking forward to not being where they are.

Remember, you can't be engaging until you're engaged. Get excited about what time you have left in this school year. You can excite them. Make yours the class they talk about when it's over.