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As a classroom teacher, returning from holiday break was always bittersweet. On one hand, I knew the pressure for “test prep” would be more intense, but on the other hand, the satisfaction of witnessing my students grow into wiser beings put a validating smile on my face.

I imagine my students felt similar…a little anxious about getting refocused on learning and the routines of school-life, but excited to be around their friends and completing another school year.

The New Year seems to offer people a clean slate or a fresh start from which to begin another 365 days of the Earth’s rotation around the Sun. Celebrations with family and friends, eating delicious food, watching the “ball” drop with flashy fireworks, and reevaluating the past or creating resolutions for the next 365 days is how most Americans bring in the New Year. Why not create a New Year’s Celebration in your classroom? It’s an ideal time to celebrate your students’ academic growth and invite them to reexamine their goals. (Food, fireworks, family, and a shiny ball are all optional.) Here are two ways you can bring in the New Year with positivity and possibility.

1. Celebrate Growth!

It was a common practice of mine to re-assign the Shurley English Pretest the day my students returned to class from their holiday break. The Teacher’s Manual did not tell me to do this; I simply felt it was an important way to remind my students how much they’d already learned in four short months and use it as a tool for motivating them at the start of the New Year. Re-assigning the Pretest was also a way for me to check-in with each student’s retention and progress.

In addition, I would ask them to write a basic three-point paragraph (or three-paragraph essay depending on the grade level) about their holiday break to monitor how they were transferring their new knowledge into writing. This practice proved to be a positive and productive way to ease my students and myself back into the teaching and learning regimen of Shurley English.

As a side note, if you were the lucky teacher to have gained a new student in your classroom, this is a non-threatening way to introduce Shurley English to your new learner.

Here are some possible writing topics:

My most memorable holiday moment
The coolest gift I gave
My wildly weird family

2. Revisit Goal Booklets!

In Chapter 1, your students created short and long term goals. Guide your class through a discussion as they re-evaluate their goals and make adjustments where needed. Remind them that their goals will help keep them focused in the direction they want to go in the classroom and in life. Refer to Chapter 1, Setting Goals, in your Teacher’s Manual to review the original activity.

Ask your students to assess their own: