End of Year Teacher Fun
Teacher Superlative Awards
I just looked through the school calendar, the student play schedule, the baseball schedule, and the swim schedule from now to the end of school. Man…this is such a busy season of life. We add in haircuts, piano lessons, speech therapy, Razorback baseball games, and there seems to be nothing left.
But, no matter how busy I am, there is always one tradition for end-of-year teacher fun that must go on. The End-of-Year Staff Celebration.
Our school hosts a luncheon for teachers and staff on the last day of school. It really is lovely, but teachers would (understandably) skip it to work in their classrooms. While I get it, it was sad. It was our last chance to be together as a staff for the year and half the teachers would take a plate and leave…missing out on the community and celebration of the whole staff being together.
So, several years ago, some teachers and I decided to work on improving morale. We got local businesses to sponsor us and we gave away amazing door prizes that one must be present to win. They were GOOD prizes and teachers love winning! It was super fun and enticed everyone to stay. But the most fun thing we added was the Teacher Superlative Awards. A few weeks before the last day, we sent out a Google Form survey for nominations. We compiled their answers and printed fancy awards for them. We did the super-fun award ceremony at the luncheon and the laughs that were had and memories that were made were priceless!
It’s a tradition that we carry on no matter how busy and drained we are. It’s so worth it!
If you plan to implement this at your school, here is a list of a few awards to get you started:
- Best Dressed
- New Kid on the Block
- Early Bird Award
- Notable & Quotable
- Cheery Cheerleader
- Rock Star of Rigor
- Pinterest Professional
- Heart of Gold
- Mistaken Student
- Powerful Paraprofessional
- Most School Spirit
- Best Beard
If you would like to skip doing it all yourself, I have created a full set of awards with 48 categories for you! They come in color and B&W and they’re all editable! Click the button below to save time making your own!
WHAT TEACHERS ARE SAYING
These were amazing to boost morale among staff. We did these every few months to recognize teachers in our building. They we’re wonderfully designed and I got lots of compliments! -Middle Math with Ms Lew
It was great and my colleagues loved their awards! -Alexandra S.
Fun awards for staff! They were a hit at our end of the year celebration! -Jaime L.
Had soooooo much fun with these! -Jennifer T.
Want to have this same morale boost in your math classroom?
My friend Tyra at Algebra and Beyond is doing this same celebration in her classroom and her students love it! She uses cute alliteration and play-on-words to make them extra fun!
She found that recognizing my students’ strengths helped develop a positive culture within her classroom. When students know that their hard work is being noticed AND appreciated, they tend to work even harder and feel better about it.
Click here to read about how she is effectively using them in her classroom or below to of straight to the awards!
If you would like more ideas for a wonderful and successful end-of-year, read about these Eight Mistakes Teachers Make at the End of the Year.
