End of the Year Blues - Exploring a New Engagement and Creativity Activity


I teach mostly high school seniors. They are great kids, but they believe in this fictional disease called "senioritis". I also teach AP Environmental Science, so the kids are a bit cooked after we take the exam in May. They also start asking in January if we will still be doing anything after the AP Exam, so the writing is on the wall that they are ready to move on without me. 

I, on the other hand, do not believe that learning should ever end. That is my curse and my challenge to overcome. I am always looking for fun and creative ways to engage my students at the end of the year. The challenge is to create a project that is engaging and fun for us all. 

Last year I had students who had the potential to be great advocates and activists. They actively cared about many of the issues we explored and were engaged in classroom discussions. With this in mind, we decided to engage in "Passion Projects". You can learn more about the project with this link. 


Most of my kids shrugged off their senioritis and created some incredible website. We enjoyed this end of year engagement together. 

While I enjoyed this project at the end of last year it is not something that I think fits my students this year. This year my challenge is a bit different. My students are much more focused on their points and less curious about the issues we have explored this year. They are more than willing to jump through the hoops for points, but as a group rarely go beyond the basics. I don't want to waste time on any end of the year passion projects if the kids are not passionate about their causes. 

This year I am going to I decided to challenge my student's creative sides with a new activity. I am also hoping I can motivate them by giving them an opportunity to compete with each other. Students will pair up and engage in something inspired by the good old "Epic Rap Battles of History". You can learn more about the activity with this link. 


If you have any suggestions or ideas, please share in the comments below. If either of the projects works for your classrooms, please feel free to copy and modify. 









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