Last days of school

I shared a job teaching summer school (ESL 7th and 8th grades) this summer. I am newly returning to teaching and my classroom management skills definitely need brushing up. I was fortunate to be sharing this position with a teacher whose management skills are excellent, and she set up the situation for the first three weeks, establishing routines, consequences and a learning environment that I was able to move into and continue with.

Grades were due last Friday. Today, my heart wasn't in it. My mentor did not warn me about the last two days and I was not able to continue with the rigorous schedule I had set up. There were no more consequences for the students to be concerned about, and my sense of powerlessness definitely communicated to the kids. I actually didn't want to teach; I was searching for some end of school "ritual" that was fitting to the lovely discipline and learning we have been enjoying these past three weeks.

We ended up planning a party, deciding on activities for each half hour block of time. We included setting up the room (moving tables and chairs and cleaning) at the beginning of the morning, and a cleanup routine at the end of class. In between, we have scheduled games such as musical chairs, steal the bacon and a dance contest--limbo! I don't have a stash of table board games. One teacher I worked with this past year had several copies of a vertical checkers game that kids love. It might almost be worth buying a few sets of it... As a backup I have three tesselations sheets that they can use to create tesselations if they want.

I did not have a good feeling about today. I do not have a good feeling about chaos. So any teacher out there who is derisive about those who are "lax"--believe me, it doesn't feel good. We just don't really know how to establish that order. If you would mentor us rather that be critical, it would be immensely helpful.

I did get some very helpful suggestions from this site: http://www.middleweb.com/MWLISTCONT/MSLlastdays.html