It’s finally the end of the school year and your administration asks you to set goals for next year. I think the best way to figure this out (amongst all your EOY stress) is to give an end of the year student survey. We all know that the quality of your answers comes from the quality of your questions, so it’s important to be thoughtful in what you are asking. I make sure to ask a few questions about the class, and a few about me as a teacher.
How to facilitate the end of the year student survey
The very first thing I do is write my students a letter. I write just one letter to the whole class. I had a teacher back in the day, (shout out Mrs. Mitchell) who wrote such a sweet letter for my fourth grade class and it stuck with me. I’m not going to give you all the details of the letter (it feels too personal for that), but here’s the gist of it.
End of the School Year Letter to Students
I let them know how proud I am of all of them. Then I let them know how lucky I was to be their teacher. I really feel these things, I don’t just say them. I then tell them how they have helped me to become a better teacher, and I hope that I did the same for them. Next, I tell them that my dream for them isn’t to be scientists (although that would be cool), but instead for them to be good people that make a positive impact on the world around them. Lastly, I invite them to come visit me, or wish them well on their adventures after high school.
When I’m teaching in person, I read this out loud to them and then give them the survey forms. This year, I needed to use Google Forms (read more about how I use Google Forms here). Honestly, considering that my school is 1:1, I think I will continue to use Google Forms for this because I love the visual you get with the data.
What questions to ask in the student survey
In order to improve my class and curriculum, I ask my students a few open ended questions. I ask
- My favorite thing we did this year was… (It was the ice cream lab – read about that here)
- My least favorite thing we did this year was… (It was tests – no surprise)
These questions get answers that are both about my class and me personally. I don’t mind it that way, honestly. These are my favorite questions because I get SUCH GOOD recommendations from them!
- I wish my teacher would… (slow down)
- What should your teacher do more of? (extra credit, lab makeups)
- What should your teacher do less of? (be so loud in the morning)
Then I give them a few multiple choice questions about their feelings about me. The first thing I teach is love, the second thing is thinking outside the box, and last is chemistry. The first two are most important to me #sorrynotsorry. They won’t remember a lot of the chemistry I teach when they leave my room, but I need them to know that they deserve love and respect from the people of the world. I need to make sure that the way I carry myself and treat my students reflects this. So the answer choices are: all of the time, most of the time, about half the time, less than half of the time and none of the time. With the younger guys, you could very well do this with emojis, or a scale from “a lot” to “a little.” These are the questions I ask: My teacher…
- made me feel smart
- got to know me
- made me feel loved
- taught me new things
- made me laugh
- was kind
- made me do my best
- made learning fun
- cares about me
End of the Year Class Review
I usually have a separate document, “How to survive chemistry with Mrs. Reavy” where I let the kids write something to the students I’m going to teacher the following year. You know, bestow their wisdom on the younger kids. It makes them feel super special and important (which they are). This also helps me to get my warnings in the beginning of the year to really resonate with the new kids. “This is the hardest class you’re going to take this year” sounds more real when I have a few Reavy Kids to back me up. I just stuck that to the end of the Google Form, and I plan to cut and paste those to the regular forms. I’ll share these with the new kids in the beginning of the year next year.
You can get a copy of the End of the Year Student Survey Google Form and a printable of these documents right here.
