May 22, 2026
Each stop is quick, practical, and ready to use in your classroom right away.
🧠 Adolescent Psychology
The last day carries a great deal of weight for how students remember you and your class.
People don’t remember experiences as averages. They don’t think I had fifty-two good days of the term, and three bad ones, so I rate it an A-. Instead, they tend to remember the peak moment and the ending.
Adolescents are especially susceptible to this. As a result, the last interaction with a teacher can recolor the whole term. A neutral or chaotic ending feels like a bad year, even if most of it was actually good.
🧩 Instruction
To make sure you end strong, be intentional about the last five minutes. Don’t end on logistics or a cleanup. End by saying something true and specific to the class (not a generic like “have a great summer”). Name one thing the class did that was worth doing: Make that something real, not motivational-poster-quality stuff. It also works to have them do a brief reflection activity.
Personally, I always loved giving one last motivational speech on how they should go forth and make their own history (which worked, because I was a history teacher).
📱 Technology
There are a few things you’ll want to do at the end of the term. I always export my gradebook and save it somewhere I can easily access it.
But the handiest thing I’ve learned to do is to get my Canvas courses set to end correctly (and I like to download backups, too). I have the instructions to do that here.
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