Finishing the school year from home has never been in my plans. Heck, I never even knew that it was a possibility! If this pandemic has taught me anything, it’s that a lot can change in a year.
In years past, I have enjoyed getting to know my students at the beginning of the year with surveys and activities that asked them various questions. I have also pulled out those surveys at the end of the year so my students and I could read them and see how much has changed since their first week. Now, more than ever, I find these beginning and end of the year memories to be incredibly important, so I wanted to find a way to capture this information.
Now that we may experience distance learning more consistently, I decided to make a beginning and end of the year Digital Memory Book. The Digital Memory Book has 3 versions of Google Slides (Beginning of the Year only, End of the Year only, and Beginning and End of the Year together).
If you’re only doing a reflection at the end of this year, you can simply assign them the Slides that only pertain to end of the year questions.
What it Includes:
- a page that asks students their favorites (food, TV show, etc.)
- a few questions to capture thoughts and feelings (goals, reflections, etc.)
- a page to add a current photo of themselves
- a page for their teacher to write them a note
BONUS ACTIVITY
I also want students to feel connected to their classmates, so I made a “senior superlative” type activity called “Who’s Who in the Classroom”. This Google Form provides various characteristics such as “most likely to succeed” and “best style” so that your students can vote on their classmates who they think best fit each quality.
This year has thrown us all for a loop, so I’m doing everything I can to try and still make fun memories with my students.
