The Liminal Zone: End-of-School-Year Activities That Aren’t Just Busywork

Podcast episode about end-of-school-year activities, meaningful end of year activities, and what to do after AP exams for high school students

If you’re looking for end-of-school-year activities that aren’t just busywork, you’re not alone. Those final weeks after AP exams and major testing can feel strange for both teachers and students. The real work of the course is finished, but the school year isn’t quite over yet. In this episode, I’m sharing meaningful end of year activities for high school students, including reflection projects, course redesign ideas, and low stress classroom activities that help students stay engaged without piling on unnecessary pressure. Whether you teach AP, dual enrollment, or any high school course with testing that ends before the calendar does, this episode is about navigating that in-between space with intention instead of just filling time.

You know that feeling at the end of May when you’re relieved, exhausted, a little sentimental, and running on four hours of sleep and whatever was left in the coffee pot?

Yeah. Me too.

If you teach any kind of high-stakes course (AP, IB, dual enrollment, end-of-course testing) there’s a good chance you’re sitting in a particular kind of in-between space right now. The real work is done. The exam is over. But the calendar says there are still TWO weeks of school left.

I’ve started calling this the liminal zone (a strange, Twilight-Zoney-in-between time). And figuring out what to do with your students inside the liminal zone is one of the tricky end-of-year challenges we face.

In this week’s episode of If Teachers Ruled the World, I’m thinking through what to do (in real time). Because truthfully, I don’t have a good answer. What I do have is a little perspective from a long time in the classroom, a few options worth considering, and a lot of feelings about what happened to my favorite end-of-year tradition this year.

Why “Just Put on a Movie” Isn’t the Answer

Students know the difference between meaningful and busywork. And so do we. The worst version of these last two weeks is assignments for assignments sake.

But the best version? That’s worth thinking carefully about–especially when you’re exhausted and trying to drag yourself to the finish line.

In this episode, I walk through what I think meaningful end of year activities actually need to accomplish, why the options that look good on paper sometimes have a hidden cost for certain students, and what I’m thinking about for my own classroom this year.

What to Do After AP Exams (When You’re Not Sure What Comes Next)

If you’re searching for post AP exam (or any exam) activities that don’t feel like a punishment for finishing, join me. I’m sharing the options I’m weighing (they could work for your students too) along with the why I’m hesitating on some of them.

There’s also a resource in the show notes I think you’ll want: a free film guide tied to a TEDx talk that reframes what it means to exist between worlds. It connects to the liminal zone idea to our lives.

Listen to find out what I mean.

What I Want You to Remember About End-of-School-Year Activities

The reason these last two weeks are hard isn’t because you’ve run out of ideas. It’s because you care too much to phone it in, even now. Even when you’re tired. Even when the kids are checked out. Even when the system isn’t making it easy.

That’s not a problem with your teaching. That is your teaching.

Go listen. And then come back and tell me what you’re doing in your classroom. I want to know.

Key Takeaway: The end of the school year doesn’t have to mean busywork or burnout. If Teachers Ruled the World explores the “liminal zone” after AP exams and high stakes testing, offering meaningful end-of-school-year activities and low stress classroom strategies that honor both where students have been and where they’re going.

Key Moments:

0:00 – Welcome to If Teachers Ruled the World: surviving the final two weeks of school on coffee fumes and pure determination

2:12 – The “liminal zone” explained: what to do after AP exams when students have finished the course but school isn’t over yet

4:20 – Why unstructured face-to-face game days are some of the most meaningful end of year activities for high schoolers — and what happened when the principal said no

6:31 – Navigating the tension between knowing what students need and working within a system: a note on professional advocacy

7:32 – A framework for low stress classroom activities at end of year: meaningful, low stakes, and grade-bump worthy

8:09 – Three end of year projects for high school that actually work: family history, course redesign, and letters to next year’s students

10:46 – Post AP exam activities, community wisdom, and an invitation to share what’s working in your classroom

11:29 – A closing reminder: the reason the last week is hard is because you care — and that is the teaching

Resources and Links

The Hidden Power of Not Always Fitting In Ted Talk Guide – The free film guide Leah mentioned in the episode

End of School Year Survival Strategy Episodes:

The Flashcard Sort: A Smart End-of-Year Review Strategy That Actually Works

The When Will We Ever Use This? Teaching Question: How to Balance Expectation and Reality

Prefer Reading? I’ve Got You…

Show Transcript
0:00 Hey, and welcome back to If Teachers Ruled the World, I’m Leah Cleary, and if you are listening to this in real time, then you know exactly what I’m about to say. We’re in the final two weeks of school and if you’re like me, you’re simultaneously relieved, exhausted, a little sentimental, and just a little and probably running on about four or five hours of sleep and whatever happens to be left at the bottom of the coffee pot. Today’s episode is a Practical Tips episode, which is fitting because this is the time of year when we need practical tips the most. Not inspiration, not vision. Just what do I actually do with these kids for the next ten days? And I’m going to be honest with you, I’m figuring it out right alongside you. So let’s think that through together.
2:12 My AP World History students took their exam on Thursday. Four hours. It is a beast of a test. And these kids trained for it like athletes ish. And now they’re done. They’re going to show up next week for one more week of content. And good for them because they don’t have to. And then they’re not going to be there for exam week because, well, they already took their exam. So I’m sitting here thinking about what to do with a group of students who have, by every meaningful measure, finished the course. You see, they’ve achieved the goal. And yet the calendar says we have more school. I call this time the liminal zone. You’re not where you were, but you’re not quite where you’re going yet. It’s that in-between space at the end of the year where the real work is done, but the official work is not over.
3:10 And if you teach any kind of high stakes course, AP, dual enrollment, end of course testing those high stakes courses, you know exactly what I’m talking about. There’s this Ted talk I came across a few years ago from a woman named Marianne Cantwell, called The Hidden Power of not always fitting in. And part of what she explores is this idea of people who exist between worlds, who don’t fit neatly into one category. That talk stuck with me. And when I think about my AP kids in these last two weeks, that’s kind of where they are. They’re not AP students anymore. They’re not done with school yet. They’re in that threshold, that holding space. I actually have a free film guide for that Ted talk if you’re interested. It’s from my sociology days, which I really miss. I love teaching sociology. I’ll link to the free film guide for that talk in my show notes. If you want to use that with your students or if you just want to watch the talk yourself, I think it’s worth your time. It’s about twenty minutes.
4:20 The question is, what do you do with that liminal time? And I think there are a few honest options worth naming. I want to tell you what I used to do in this last week, because I think it matters, even though I can’t do it this year. I used to bring board games and cards to school, Uno, things like that. And when the weather was nice, we’d take them outside into the courtyard. And yes, I know how that sounds. I know the superintendent might drive by and see my students playing Uno in the sunshine and wonder what is happening with Miss Cleary’s kids. But here’s what I know after twenty five years. These kids are starving for unstructured, face to face time. They’re so scheduled, so screened, so optimized that they have genuinely lost practice at something that used to come naturally to all of us: just being together, playing a game, laughing at each other, handling the tiny frustrations of someone drawing four cards on you without making it a whole big deal.
5:32 When I was growing up, and I know we’re all tired of hearing people say when I was growing up, but it’s true. It’s changed. When I was growing up. We were outside all the time. Kickball. Capture the flag. Riding our bikes to the corner store to grab a soda. And I had a pretty darn happy childhood. I’m not saying screens cause all of our students anxiety. I think it’s way more complicated than that. But I do think there’s something about face to face, unstructured play that we’ve accidentally let slip away. And those last week game days were my small attempt to give it back. This year. That’s not happening. My principal asked us not to do it. And while I have feelings about that honest feelings and I’ll come back to those feelings in a second, I’m a professional and she’s my boss. And so we are doing something else.
6:31 Okay, so I’m going to name those feelings briefly because I think a lot of you are carrying some version of this right now. That thing where you know what your students need and you can see it clearly, and then something gets in the way of you being able to give it to them. That’s hard. And I’m not going to pretend it isn’t. At the same time, and I say this as someone who’s by nature maybe a little more justice oriented than is practical in this world, there’s a difference between a policy that’s wrong and a policy that’s just not my preference. This one falls into the second category. I disagree with it. I’m going to advocate for a different approach when the time is right. And I’m going to follow it in the meantime, because that’s what it means to work within a system while also trying to change it. Okay. Feelings named. Moving on.
7:32 If you’re in that liminal zone right now and you need to assign something, here’s how I’m thinking about it. The project, if you do a project, should do at least one of these three things. It should be meaningful. It should be low stakes enough to let them breathe. They’ve already done the work for the course. Or it should give students who need a grade bump a real chance to earn one. Ideally, it does all three. I’m currently weighing a few options, and I’ll share them with you because maybe one of them will spark something for your classroom.
8:09 Option one that’s the family history project. A colleague of mine does this every year and the kids absolutely love it. They research their own family history through the lens of the course content. World history comes alive when it’s your history. I love this idea in theory. Here’s my hesitation with that, though. Not every kid has access to their family history in the same way this assignment assumes. Kids in foster care, kids who are adopted, kids whose family histories involve trauma or loss, or gaps that can’t be filled in. My son is adopted, and when he was in high school, projects like this had a complicated edge to them. Not impossible, but weighted in a way that most of his classmates just didn’t feel. If you use a family history project, I would strongly encourage you to build in a genuine alternative. Not a consolation prize, but a real option of equal weight, because the kid who quietly chooses the other option is probably already carrying enough.
9:20 Okay. Option two is the course redesign. You know, kids love to boss us around. I had my students complete an end of year survey last week. I haven’t looked at it yet. I need to steel myself for that one, if I’m being completely honest. But once I do, I’m thinking about having them use those reflections as the basis for a project where they redesign something in the course. What would they keep? What would they change if they were the teacher? What would this class look like? There’s something I like about this because it asks them to think critically, and it honors their experience as the people who actually lived and perhaps suffered through my course. It’s also quietly incredibly useful information for me.
10:09 Option three letters to next year’s students. This one is simple and I keep coming back to it. Have your current students write letters of advice to the students who will sit in those seats next year. What do they wish they’d known? What actually helped them? What should next year’s class not stress about? There’s a generosity to this assignment that I find kind of beautiful. You’re asking exhausted students to turn around and offer a hand to someone who isn’t even here yet. And in my experience, kids rise to that.
10:46 Here’s the thing, though. I don’t have a perfect answer here, and I want to know what you’re doing. What’s your end of year project or activity? What have you tried that actually worked, that felt meaningful rather than like busywork? Drop a comment wherever you’re listening, or find me at leahcleary.com and tell me what you do with that liminal zone, because I genuinely believe that some of the best teaching ideas I have didn’t come from a book or a conference or professional development. They came from another teacher who figured something out in their classroom and was generous enough to share it.
11:29 I want to close with this. The reason this last week is hard isn’t because you’ve run out of ideas. It’s because you care too much to phone it in even now. Even when you’re tired, even when the kids are checked out and believe me, they are checked out. Even when the system isn’t making it easy, you’re still asking, what do these students need? What’s the right thing here? How do I make sure nobody falls through the cracks in this final stretch?
11:59 That’s not a problem with your teaching. That is your teaching. We’re all trying to figure it out as we go. We always have been. And somehow every year we get to the other side. A little more tired. A little more worn out. One or two more gray hairs, but a little more certain that this work is worth it. Thanks for being here. Go and finish strong and take care of yourself these last two weeks. You’ve earned it just as much as your students have. Until next time.

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