As we get close to the end of the semester, it is worth a moment to consider how you would like to end your spring classes. As a student, I never liked lukewarm goodbyes like “I see our time for today is up. Good luck on the final!” An ideal end of the course brings together themes of the course, provides closure, expresses gratitude to the students for their contributions, and celebrates accomplishments. In this blog post, I offer suggestions for each of those four categories.

Bring Together Themes of the Course

The easiest way to bring together themes is to do a short lecture on what you see as the themes. In contracts, I might say something about the function of contract law in sustaining our capitalist economy, the surprising degree of ambiguity in human communication, the benefits of collaboration and self-regulation in learning, and the day-to-day ways in which contracts law touches our lives. I prefer, however, to collaborate with my students to create a word cloud by asking them to respond to a pre-class survey about what they saw as the themes of the class using a word cloud generator such as Poll Everywhere. I share the resulting word cloud in a slide on the final day of class.

Provide Closure

As a professor, I strive to be authentic and emotionally present in all my classes. Consequently, my efforts at closure often overlap with my expression of gratitude to the students. I thank them for the joy of sharing the room with them and participating in their learning journey. To give students a sense of closure, I often ask them to share what, if anything, they will remember about the class five years from now; even in classes as large as 60 students, I have done similar all-weigh-in-activities very quickly.

Express Gratitude

At the very least, I simply say thank you to the class, highlighting the moments in class that were most meaningful to me. Another possibility is to hold a random drawing and given away small tokens, such as a t-shirt or mug saying “I survived Contracts!”

Celebrate Accomplishments

Our students have moved from novices in our fields to having considerable understanding. Some of what students have learned can be captured by having each student write a short letter to future students in the class in which the student gives advice to their successors on how to succeed in the class. Another possibility is for each student to email you, before class, a “shout out” about another student in the class; you can share some of your favorites with the whole class.

I often tell a favorite story that communicates how much I believe in the students and include a small giveaway that is a symbol/long-term reminder of my belief.

Of course, you, too, have accomplished something worth celebrating—you completed another class. By bringing together themes of the course, providing closure, and expressing gratitude, you celebrate your own accomplishment. So– congratulations! You have had another successful semester. And I am grateful you have chosen to read at least one of my teaching tidbits. I hope I have brought value to you.