End-of-Year Checklist for Teachers

The end of the year for teachers often involves a mad dash to get everything done. There’s the cleaning, the organising, the gifts, the student profiles, report cards, meetings with next year’s teachers, plus… planning ahead for next year! With so much to think about, it can often get overwhelming and you end up spending a whole lot of time running around in this crazy end-of-year fog! Sound familiar?

We asked teachers what their ultimate end-of-year checklist would include and have pulled all the comments together into one easy-to-follow list.

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The ULTIMATE End-of-Year Teacher Checklist

We’ve included some great resources/blogs for some of these points if you would like to explore further.

1. Finish off report cards.
2. Plan some fun end-of-year activities with your students.
3. Complete an end-of-year communication home to parents – include things like plans for the last day, if there is an end-of-year concert – what are the final things parents need to know.
4. Celebrate the year that was with your students with an end-of-year class party.
5. Plan ahead for next year – do you need to organise a Meet the Teacher for your class next year?
6. Order a new planner for next year, or create your own teacher planner.
7. Take down classroom displays.
8. Organise student portfolios or work to be sent up to the next teacher.
9. Plan a clean-up day WITH your students (clean tables/chairs/tidy trays/book boxes).
10. Send books home in small increments each day so kids don’t have a huge bulk on the last day.
11. Complete end-of-year student reflections.
12. Finalise IEPs.
13. Return any library materials.
14. Organise end-of-year gifts for students.
15. Thank you cards for classroom helpers (parents or aides).
16. Reflect on the year – complete an end-of-year self-reflection.
17. Spend some time decluttering the classroom.
18. Do a stocktake of art supplies and stationery.
19. Organise your filing cabinet.
20. Go through and check games/puzzles and make sure all pieces are there.
21. When cleaning up – have a tub labeled ‘back to school’ if you come across things you know you’ll need for the first week next year – pop them in the tub.
22. If moving classrooms – see if you can start moving things sooner rather than later.
23. Do a digital cleanout – declutter your inbox, move any data or photos from the year into an archived folder, clean up your desktop and organise folders.
24. Clean out the classroom fridge and defrost if there is a freezer component.
25. Check to see if your carpets are getting cleaned and if you need to store furniture in one location.
26. Check furniture – is there anything that is broken or that you no longer need?

And lastly, but most importantly, plan your holiday! Don’t let your holidays fly by in a daze. It’s time to create your school holiday to-do list now!

We’d love to hear what you’d add to this list… share in the comments of this blog.