Pretty much no matter where you live or teach or where your children go to school, this time of year, and in some cases, this particular week, marks the beginning of many annual rituals and transitions full of difficult dilemmas and wonderful paradoxes.

In some school districts, children are just returning from a week of April vacation or returned not too long ago from a spring break. The end of the school year is in sight, yet there’s still an enormous amount of academic ground to cover. In our state, AYP assessments in mathematics, in particular, loom in May, not to mention science, history, etc. Meanwhile, baseball, softball, and other wonderful springtime family pursuits are ramping up into full gear. Homework becomes a challenge at home, attendance at after-school homework help sessions drops off, and classroom engagement requires thoughtful lesson planning — to put it mildly!

Many wonderful traditional end-of-the-year events need careful planning, too: the spring concert or play, the “Step-Up” days to give children a chance to see what it will be like in next year’s grade (while they try to pay attention to learning this year’s skills!). And don’t forget the big end-of-the-year culminating field trips and, oh, yes, field day, the PTO family picnic and . . . did I forget anything?

In the midst of all this busy business, teachers must also be attending meetings to think about next year’s curriculum and next year’s classes (including in many cases what and where they will be teaching), while at the same time finalizing their reports and report cards on this year’s class to provide the best summary of the year for parents and next year’s teachers.

As all this wonderfulness whirls around us, we should pause and, for the sake of the children, work very hard to plan time in every school day (and at home) to slow the pace. We need to give children time for meaningful reflection about all the wonderful things they’ve learned (and are still learning) in their classroom this year, what a wonderful learning community they’ve built, what strong skills they’ve acquired. We must remember that the children are living in this moment. This time right now is a piece of their childhood memory under construction. Handle with care.

For terrific resources on planning for this time of year, go to the Responsive Classroom^® website: www.responsiveclassroom.org. There you’ll see that the April 2009 newsletter has a number of articles related to this topic. While you’re visiting, also use the search bar on the site to Google “last six weeks of school” for a host of other great ideas!