The worst was an 8th grade Literature class I taught when I was a new teacher. (I have no way of knowing, but probably at least 50% have been to jail at least once since then!) On the last day, we parted without one word of farewell. The bell rang, they walked out, and I was as happy to see them go as they were to leave! Pretty embarrassing!
I was so disappointed in how that year had turned out that I started thinking about how to make the end of the year a culmination rather than a relief, because I never wanted such a miserable ending again. I put some serious time and effort into researching, consulting more experienced teachers and administrators, and thinking about how to apply what I learned. It came down to three things: