Vacations at schools of all kinds and colleges are usually very waited for. No wonder. Experienced teachers claim that by the end of a semester students get tired. They start to get sick more often and they work less productive. So, vacations are really necessary. At the same time, scientists claim that breaks in studying make students forget what they have learned. And it usually takes some time to get them involved in studying again. Luckily, educators know several tricks that help students return quicker to the usual studying routine.

Ways to Help Students Re-Focus after Spring Break.

Spring break differs from other vacations. The end of the school year is close and so it is necessary to prepare for the end of the year testing.  That is especially important for certain grades, for example for students who finish primary, middle-high, or high school. Of course, high school or college students can buy cheap coursework, but still, they themselves can prepare for the tests well. And educators can use many ways to help students re-focus after vacations and spring break in particular.

• Teachers should remember that during spring break students most probably had very active life going with their parents somewhere.  And they haven’t seen their school friends the whole week. For many children, it’s a really long time. So, students are eager to share their impressions with classmates. Teachers can incorporate their vacation stories into their lessons. For example, it’s a good idea to let the students tell about their spring break to the class. That could be a discussion or short writing placed later on a board in the classroom or even a guess game for younger students.
• Elementary and middle –high school teachers might need to remind their students of the behavior rules at school and in class. It’s also important to follow a usual classroom routine to create an ordinary working atmosphere.
• After an active spring break, students might find it difficult to sit quietly. So, the first-class after vacations should include a physical activity break, maybe even several of them. Physical activity breaks are especially important for students having problems with concentration.
• It’s clear that after quite a long rest it will be hard for students to concentrate. So, different games and other activities to train attention will be just on time. It’s also very important to remember that the time students can stay attentive depends on their age. The approximate formula is from two to five minutes per year of age.  So, an average six years old kid can stay concentrated for up to 20 minutes and only some will last 30 minutes. Teachers should change activities several times during the lesson to make their students stay concentrated. This is especially important after vacations.
• Educators know that it’s impossible to continue studying at the point where you have stopped before the vacations. Most probably students won’t remember formulas or dates they knew well before the rest. So, in the first few lessons after the spring break, it’s important to review the material your students studied before the vacations.
• It’s a good idea to make the first lesson after a vacation unusual. A video, a song or music, connected with the topic of your lesson will help students to concentrate on the learning. If it’s appropriate, a teacher might invite a guest to that lesson. Of course, the presentation or discussion should be connected with the topic of the lesson. An educator can also incorporate IT technologies into that first lesson after vacations. That could be a virtual excursion to some museum, a web-quest, a project, or even a virtual reality activity.
• The home task after the vacations should also be reasonable and probably devoted to material revising. The teacher needs to remember that students require some time to get back into their usual studying routine.

 Even though students of all ages need some time to get re-focused after any vacations and a spring break, in particular, a teacher can help them by using some special approaches. This help will be especially important after a spring break because students will need to pass the end of the year tests soon after that.

This is a contributed post and therefore may not reflect the views and opinions of this blog or its author.