Endings That Stick

Endings That Stick

From Change Starts Here by Franklin Covey Education

May 12, 2026 · 16 min

About this episode

The episode discusses the importance of meaningful endings in education and offers practical strategies for educators to enhance student reflection at the end of the school year.

In this episode of Change Starts Here, Kim Yaris and Dr. Eve Miller discuss the final weeks of the school year, a time typically filled with tying up loose ends, cleaning up, and the temptation to just pop in a movie. However, research shows that how a year ends disproportionately shapes how students will remember the entire experience. Drawing on Daniel Kahneman's famous "peak-end rule" and Crystal Park's research on meaning-making, the hosts explain that it isn't enough for an ending to just be positive; it has to feel meaningful. Students who can articulate what they learned from turning points show higher well-being years later. To help educators end the year with intention, Kim and Eve offer two practical, research-backed moves: planning the last week backward from a final shared moment, and providing a structured reflection for students to make sense of their year. Download the Handout Handout : https://resources.franklincovey.com/c/podcast_handout_epis-35?x=whj9VQ Hosts : Kim Yaris, M.Ed. (Associate Director of Research with FranklinCovey Education) Dr. Eve Miller (Director of Research with FranklinCovey Education) Timestamps : 00:00 Podcast intro 00:15 The end of year…

People in this episode

Hosts: Kim Yaris, Dr. Eve Miller

Topics covered

  • end of school year
  • student reflection
  • meaningful endings
  • educational research
  • well-being

Keywords

  • endings
  • education
  • reflection
  • peak-end rule
  • student well-being

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: FranklinCovey Education

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