Thinking high school students could care less for class keepsakes & awards? Think again! They love these and I am going to share with you two ideas you can bring to your classroom as you close the semester. Let’s get to it!
The Magic of the WordFoto App
I made these keepsakes for my learners using the app Word Foto.
Here is what you will need:
- WordFoto App downloaded (I believe it is only available for IPhones at the moment and it costs a one time payment of $1.99)
- Printed copies of this SEL self-affirmation activity
- Photos for each one of your students. Digital mode and printed for final product.
- Mini place holders – Find them at the Dollar Tree or at Amazon. I ordered mine via Amazon. Here is the link!
The Keepsake Process
Here is my process with some time saving tips:
STEP 1 – Collect students’ pictures. Time saving tip: Decide how you want your learners to share their pictures with you. Do you want them to drop them off to a Google Folder? Email? Airdrop? I opted to have my learners airdrop their images to me and those who did not have an IPhone (only about three students) emailed them to me. I did not take any of their pictures myself (who has time for that?). If learners are given the freedom to send you their favorite photo, they will treasure this keepsake even more.
STEP 2 – Give your learners an opportunity to show some appreciation to themselves with this SEL self-affirmation activity. Have learners complete this activity and have them keep it for when you need it. You might have to model for them how to write self affirmations. Being vulnerable with your own examples goes a long way with SEL learning experiences.
Don’t Forget To Download the App
STEP 3 – Download the WordFoto App if you haven’t already and decide what is better for you during this step. This is the step where you actually create each photo keepsake in your phone. Here are your three choices:
- Do it yourself. I don’t recommend this, and again…who has time to do that? Nonetheless, this is an option if you don’t feel comfortable with the next two suggestions.
- While students are going on about their day or completing their daily work, call on them, one at a time, and have them bring their self affirmation document. Pull up their photo on the WordFoto App and have them type their ten adjectives. Once they are done, you text the photo creation to yourself. Don’t forget to text the photo yourself so you can easily have them all in one text. Personally, I use this method to create all of my keepsakes. It also gave me an opportunity to have one on one moments with my learners
- Delegate the task to a trusted student helper and have this student do all the photos (and photo saving) for you. This student will need you to show them one time how to do the entire process. Keep in mind this student will also need everyone’s self affirmation completed sheet and access to everyone’s photos. It will save you a ton of time!
Printing the Keepsake
STEP 4 – Once you have all your photos projects saved on your phone, it is time to have them printed. I usually go with Walgreens or CVS. Money saving tip: NEVER PAY FULL PRICE! I select these two pharmacies because they have same day printing services. Can’t find a coupon for half off? Search for one on Google, it never fails me. I paid about $14 for about 74 fotos.
STEP 5 – Attach each photo to a place holder.
STEP 6 – Deliver to students and enjoy. Make a big deal out of it! Celebrate!
Keepsake To Celebrate Learners
There you have it! This is how I used the WordFoto App to celebrate my learners this end of the year. I look forward to sharing more ideas of how I plan to use this app with my learners in every day activities in another blog post in the near future.
I want to give a huge thanks to Yohanna Jimenez for sharing with everyone about this app at SCOLT2022.
Class Superlatives & Class Awards
Class awards and class superlatives have been getting a bad rep lately. I asked my students last year if they would like to have these the last week of school and they said YES very excitedly. Not only that, they gave me so many ideas for different ways to do these.
Class awards provide another opportunity to close the year recognizing and affirming everyone’s contributions to the class with everyone’s unique personalities.
Class awards do not have to be complicated, and they don’t have to take up a bunch of your time either. Also, you don’t have to print them on a ton of paper. In fact, I do mine as bookmark keepsakes. You can see mine here!
There are many ways to do it. Let me tell you a bit about how I like to do them in my class.
Class Award Process
For the last two years, I have had two categories for class awards: Serious Awards and Funny Awards.
I project all awards lists in each of my two categories and we decide as a class if there are any awards we might find hurtful to anyone in any way. Remember to give all learners the opportunity to opt out of the voting and celebration. For the last two years I have been doing it this way, no one ever opts out.
I proceed to create my voting Google forms, which really does not take long to create once I have their names keyed in the first time. Then, everyone votes.
I buy one customized trophy to serve as a picture prop (which I ordered though Amazon). We also have a class party where we celebrate each category. I have two assigned MCs like in any award ceremony, and we make it a big deal. There is usually a ton of laughter and anticipation.
As a teacher, we must make sure everyone in the class receives an award mention. It is our way to show everyone how visible they each are, no matter how quiet they were in class. So, if you see a student is getting left out with votes, remember that your vote overpowers anything in this celebration.
Keepsakes and Awards
Again, these are just TWO ideas. Feel free to use, tweak, and adapt as needed.
These activities provide a nice touch to the last weeks of school and are the perfect way to celebrate the class community you build and maintained all year with your learners while telling each one “I SEE YOU” and “YOU MAKE THIS CLASS SO SPECIAL.”
As always, if you happen to bring it life and make it your own, please tag me on social media. Thank you for reading!
P.S. Did you read this post?