🎓Free Student Leadership Course, Summer PD Hours & Teacher Tools to Wrap the Year! 🤦🏼♂️
⏰ TL;DR
Your future self called, and said “pretty please don’t leave me with this messsssssss.”
🧩 Resource of the Week - 🎓 7 Leadership Tips for Students Course - Broke up my leadership talk I gave at FBLA Arkansas into it’s own course your students can do to fill up them final days of class!
🛠️ Tech Tip - Gemini chatboxes are now in YouTube!
📚 Tarver Book Club - Gerry the GOAT! (Pronounced Gary, not the way I did in this video from 5 years ago 🤦🏼♂️
🎓 HONOR ROLL ONLY - New Summer PD Livestream Announced: Google Resources Walkthrough!! We’ll be walking step-by-step through all the resources we can (+ knocking out 3 of your summer PD hours in the process)!! 🙌
👋 REAL TALK
The end of the school year is kind of like the final scene in a movie where everyone throws papers in the air, hugs their favorite teacher, and runs out the door like it’s a reverse Black Friday sale at Target.
But here’s what the movie doesn’t show:
The exhausted teacher dragging home 47 half-used Expo markers, a mystery flash drive with who-knows-what on it, and a stack of “to grade” papers that will absolutely end up getting filed in the trash and reported as completion grades. 😂🤷
This is the moment, tho.
Not just to wrap up hastily like a birthday present you’re concealing in the car right before the birthday party (no shame, we’ve all been there), but this is a time to set yourself up like a Tom Cruise playing volleyball!
Think of it like a Valentine’s Day gift to your future self.
📦 Organize that Google Drive.
🧹 Declutter that desk.
🗂️ Make a folder titled “Dear Future Me”
You don’t need to do everything, just do something that will save you time, stress, confusion, and/or tears a few months from now!
Your future self will be like:
Dang, Past Me really loves Present Me.
But is it true love?
Only time will tell!!
Let’s wrap this school year up by leaving lil Hansel and Gretel breadcrumbs to lead ourselves to the promised land in the Fall!
You got this!!
FINISH STRONG!
-Tyler
📥 THE DROP
Quick wins, free tools, and classroom-ready ideas I’d forward a teacher BFF to save time and teach even better!
🧩 Free Resource of the Week
You made it through testing, field day (aka test-dat-deodorant day), and at least 3 student presentations that included AI-generated nonsense and a meme slideshow with no context! 😂🤦🏼♂️
Now you’ve got a lil time to fill LIKE A CUP HALF FULL, and instead of wheeling in the TV cart and hitting play on Shrek 2 (again), let me hand you a ready-made activity that has personal application questions AND class-wide conversation starters:
🎓 7 Leadership Tips for Students Course
This ready-to-go course is built for your students, designed to help them grow in confidence, communication, and leadership!
Run it in class or assign it over a week!
It's probs made more for junior high and high school and comes with:
✅ Short video lessons (clipped from a talk I gave recently at the FBLA Arkansas State Conference)
✅ Engaging discussion prompts - Personal application AND Classroom discussions
✅ Reflection activities and supplemental videos from people much smarter than me!
The idea is this is fun, useful, and made to spark actual growth (not just kill time 😁)!
Have your students get free access 👉 HERE
🛠️ Tech Tip
Google’s AI Magician “Gemini” hath found it’s way into YouTube videos! Make a chatbox to ask/create with a YouTube video like it’s a sufficient Chat with a Representative add-on for a billion-dollar company!
🎥 Watch how it works (1-min video)
⏳ Time Saver
Go to your Google Drive and set a 10-minute timer. Try to name as many of your “Copy of…” docs as you can, before Future You ends up in File Name Purgatory (I’m lookin at you “Copy of Copy of Lesson Plan Template)! 😂
🧪 Hack of the Week
The End-of-Course Evaluation template helps you get real feedback on what worked, what flopped, and what made them students actually care(ish)! It might sting a little, but it’s the kind of info that makes you stronger (and maybe cry, in a self-improvement type way)!!
👨🔬 LEARNING LAB
A few lil chicken nuggets I’ve been learning, lol-ing, or lowkey stealing ideas from (and you can, too)!
🎥 Video I Liked
Such a cool brain hack to overcome thoughts that talk you out of things you want to accomplish, or divert thoughts you want to get rid of!
I’ve tried it and it’s kinda dope. Lemme know if it works for you!
P.S. I named my brain Alfred, cause I want to picture it as a helpful butler who does what I ask (also in this scenario I get to be Batman 😂).
💬 Quote I’m Loving
“Year's end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us.”
— Hal Borland
A beautiful lil reminder that the end of the school year is a continuation of our journey as educators, carrying forward the lessons learned to pass on to our next group of young humans we get the opportunity to impact for the better!
🤖 Prompt of the Week
I'm a teacher wrapping up the school year, and I’m feeling [insert how you're feeling: burned out, unsure, motivated but overwhelmed, etc.]. Here's a quick overview of my situation: [describe what's been hard or what you want to improve: classroom management, student engagement, balancing life and work, etc.]. Can you break this down for me? What are 3 encouraging takeaways from my experience, and 3 practical steps I can take to rest, reflect, and grow this summer?"
📚 Tarver Book Club
Go See the Principal by Gerry Brooks
imo: this book is a hilarious and heartfelt look at the real-life chaos of school leadership. Gerry Brooks (it’s pronounced Gary, which I totally butchered in my video review i made 5 years ago 😅) brings the same energy from his phenomenal videos into this collection of stories and insights.
It reminds us as teachers and leaders that it’s okay to laugh at the ridiculous stuff we all deal with, and reminds us we’re not alone in this!
🎥 Watch my quick review I made 5 years ago (again, pronounced his name wrong cause I’m dumb 🤦🏼♂️)
🔐 THE VAULT
Weekly highlighted tips, trainings, & resources just for the Honor Roll VIPs! 👩🏫 Admin ➡️ get full access for your ENTIRE school!
🥋 Skill to Help You
Teachers, let’s face it: YouTube is like a giant buffet of knowledge...but not every dish is worth putting on your plate. 🍛 This module breaks down how to find content that’s not just good but classroom-worthy. Learn to curate videos that make learning engaging, accurate, and visual, all while navigating the chaos of cat videos and clickbait like a total prooooooo. 🐱
🎥 Training to Save Time
🙌 NEW SUMMER VIRTUAL TRAINING ANNOUNCEMENT!!
Livestreaming July 17th, 2025 @ 9am - 12pm CST
For all you Honor Roll peeps! We’re gonna explore powerful Google templates designed to save you time and simplify your workflow. In this hands-on virtual session, you'll get a step-by-step walkthrough of as many of my custom-made Google resources I can go over in 3 hours! Walk away with ready-to-use tools that enhance organization, engagement, and efficiency in your classroom! KNOCK OUT THEM SUMMER PD HOURS WITH MEEEE!!
🎤 Steal this Slide Deck
“Building Sustainable Classroom Resources” - Quick walkthrough of Google tools (Gmail, Drive, Classroom, Forms, etc.) with time-saving tips to help you stay organized, connect with students, and build reusable lessons that actually work: online or in person!
✌️Epilogue
Okay, so we made it to the end of the email and the school year (almost)!
You crushed it.
Even if it didn’t feel like it.
Even if the last week involved gooey popsicles, unreturned Chromebooks, and a kid asking how they can bring their grade up 43 points the last day of class.
Thanks for letting me be a very small part of your big teacher journey. 🤜🏽🔥🤛🏽
Let’s rest. Let’s reset. Let’s come back better!
💌 Never Stop Learning!
-Dr. Tyler Tarver
🎯 P.S. I’m thinking about launching some free summer livestream mini-sessions for administrators (and teachers who are future admin) focusing on using AI as a principal, director, etc.
I’m building out the topics right now and I’d love YOUR input (feel free to forward this to your principal to ask their thoughts)! Updating the handbook, evaluating teachers, and other lil admin time-saver goodies!
Just reply to this email with whatever you think I could help you (or them) with this summer!
