14 Excellent Ways to End the School Year

14 Excellent Ways to End the School Year

May 12, 2026 · 20 min

About this episode

Jeremiah Kim joins Kristin Leong to discuss effective activities for teachers to celebrate and reflect as the school year ends.

The end of the school year can feel like the best––and worst––of times. On the one hand, it’s a great stretch because “the routines and procedures are set,” and the kids have their sights set on summer vacation, says Kansas City-based middle school ELA teacher Jeremiah Kim. But the workload for teachers closing out the year can be intense. “We all just want to be done, but we still have these boxes to check,” he says. In this episode of School of Practice, Kim joins host Kristin Leong to explore a toolkit of low-lift, delightful, teacher-tested activities that inject celebration, meaningful reflection, and even some review into the last few weeks of class. Hang in there, teachers, summer break is just around the corner! Related resources: Learn more about this episode 19 Highly Engaging End-of-Year Activities Wrapping Up the School Year in English Language Arts Meaningful Learning to End the Year Strong Finishing Strong in Elementary School 4 Meaningful Activities to Mark the End of School How to Celebrate the End of the Year in Elementary School 8 Epic Ideas for Ending the School Year Research: Reappraising Academic and Social Adversity Improves Middle School Students’ Academic…

People in this episode

Host: Kristin Leong

Guest: Jeremiah Kim

Topics covered

Keywords

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Edutopia

Places: Kansas City

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