Top Tips For Teaching Yoga In Schools - Tip #45: Complete Your End Of Year Review

Welcome back to the blog!

It’s almost the end of the school year, so this week, I want to leave you with a few ideas for ways to complete an end of year review that will help you take stock of this school year, and lay a strong foundation for next year.

As always, please leave a comment below if you have questions or found this tip helpful, and remember, I send out a monthly newsletter with tips each month, so sign up if you want to get these tips straight to your inbox!

Tip #45: Complete Your End of Year Review

The end of the school year is approaching for many of us in the coming days and weeks. 

This year has been A LOT, and if you’re like me, you’re probably ready to shut your computer come the last day, and not look back. You’re ready for that much deserved summer of rest. 

However, before you head off for a summer of resting, teaching summer camps, or whatever it may be, I’m going to encourage you to make time for what I like to call, The Year In Review. 

For your End of Year Review, you’re going to want to accomplish three things: gathering student testimonials, conducting an exit interview with your schools principal / dean, and implementing an end of year student survey. 

Not only will these materials help you wrap up the year with closure, but they’ll also provide you with much needed feedback on your program, and provide you with valuable insights and next steps as you plan and prepare for next year. 

Testimonials can be gathered from parents, students, and teachers. If you’re going to share on your website and social media at all, please be sure to seek permission from all parties before posting with names, especially for students. Testimonials don’t need to be long, and it can often be helpful to provide folks with prompts such as, “something (I / my child / my student) learned from the program is…” to get them started. 

End of year exit interviews are a great tool for gathering feedback from teachers and school administrators. They can be formal or informal, but try to schedule a time to check in with school staff to get their thoughts on how the program went, what they would like to see more of, and what if anything, they may want to change. Also ask them about their goals for your program next year, so you can get planning now!

Student surveys are a great way to gather informal data for your own use regarding what worked, and what didn’t work during your program, so you can make any tweaks going forward. Consider asking students the topics / classes they enjoyed the most, what they want more of, how they felt before and after each session, and more. 

All of this information will help you set yourself up for success next year and beyond!

Tip Takeaway: In these last few days / weeks of the year, conduct an End of Year Review by gathering testimonials, making time to check in with school leaders, and giving your students an end of year survey to complete. Each of these things will provide you much needed feedback as you wrap up the year and begin to plan your programming for next year. If you can’t get to all of them, no worries! Pick one or two to complete before summer break instead!