Last Day of School!

It's finally here. Sweet Jesus, it's finally here!

Oh man...I can't wait for 11:30 this morning. 2.5 more hours and we're on our way for lunch at Valentina and I can collapse on the couch and read my book. Aaahhh....

No more 8th grade

Wow....that was fast. I just had my last class with the 8th grade. Unfortunately for them, I was correct in assuming that they wouldn't complete their last project. At least half of them didn't turn it in, and the ones that DID turn it in freaked the bleep out because they realized it was the last class and their projects sucked. Too darn bad...not my problem that you're so totally focused on graduation (a month early) that you didn't get your work done when I asked you to. I would have given them today as a free period if they hadn't blown off and used actual classes as free periods. I swear, those kids are putting gray hairs on my little head.

Right at the end of class, my color printer was acting up and freaking out and not printing at all. When it did start printing, one boy and one girl were left in the room. The first papers that came out of the printer didn't belong to the boy, and he was waiting patiently. When the printer jammed, he paused dramatically and said, "Damn!" I SHOULD have given him a demerit, but all I did was giggle and say he's lucky I don't care anymore. It's their last week. I'm sure they could all get 17 demerits and it wouldn't phase them in the slightest.

All in all I'm pretty proud of this class. They're generally good students, even the ones who struggle. There isn't anyone in class who doesn't turn in work. The students who struggle are the ones with learning disabilities and who attent Title 1 classes, and even THEY turn in good, thoughtful work. This class was pretty rare. They all got along and they all were pretty nice to one another. They weren't angels, but they also weren't the kind of kids who make young teachers consider early retirement, either. There are some pretty huge egos in this class, especially because so many of them are strong contenders for the end of the year academic awards. Unfortunately, there are only so many awards to be given out. I finally picked a boy and girl to give my award to, and I'd thought about it for weeks. Last year I had 2 contenders. My first option was to give it to the student with the highest average, but that student was light years ahead of everyone else and was getting a few awards. My next option was the girl who made the biggest leaps and bounds and really grew as a student. Unfortunately, that choice was derailed by their homeroom teacher because she didn't "think she deserved it." Oy. So I gave it to my 3rd choice, who wasn't a bad kid but had performed steadily throughout the year. He didn't make tremendous leaps like the other student, but he was pretty good. This year, I'm really satisfied with my 2 choices, and I think they'll be surprised when they get the awards.

It's pretty crazy how quickly this year is winding down. I can't believe it, but I only teach about 10 more classes before the year ends. Wow.

And now...

I just had my last Kindergarten class. Weird.

I have:

• 3 more 3rd grade classes
• 4 more 4th grade classes
• 3 more 5th grade classes
• 3 more 6th grade classes
• 3 more 7th grade classes
• 1 more 8th grade class
• 2 more second grade classes
• 2 more first grade classes

21 classes until freedom. Whoa.

How did we get to this point?

2 weeks left. 8 days. WOW.

It's the final countdown!

Officially less than 4 weeks to go! Hurrah!

This week I'm only teaching Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday is our annual Walk-A-Thon, and Thursdays I don't teach, so it's a brief week that's jammed full for me.

I've only got a few classes left with the 8th grade. I only see them 2 days a week as it is, and this Wednesday's out, next Wednesday is their Ribbon Day so they'll be celebrating all week, and the next Monday is Memorial Day so classes aren't in session. Isn't that nuts? Three classes left.

I passed out their progress reports today and a number of them have Cs and Ds. They've been lazy this quarter and there's enough missing work to make sure I don't have a free weekend between now and graduation. Isn't that nice of them? Oh well. I warned them and now they have 3 classes to turn in what they're missing. It sucks but in their minds they've been on summer vacation since....January? They've got it bad, and that ain't good!

On one hand, I'm looking forward to an extra 45 minutes in my day (for 3 days). On the other hand, it'll be sad to see another class leave and move on. Each class thinks they're special, and they are in some way, but they're also very much like other 8th grades that came before them. They've got so many more opportunities available to them and they won't have to start working right after receiving their diploma as so many of their predecessors did. They have the chance to attend some of the best high schools in the city and graduate and become something. Isn't that crazy? Think about all the possibility that laid before you at 14. Are you were you wanted to be when you were 14?

There's not much time left to plan the rest of the year and get ready for summer camp. I can't believe how quickly this year went by. I'm thankful for it, but I'm a little annoyed that I didn't get as much accomplished as I wanted to. Oh well. Hopefully I'll be brought back for a third year and I can finish some of what I wanted to start.

6 Weeks Left

WOOOO! I can do it!! LET'S DO THIS THANG!!!

The morning after.

I. Am. Ex. Austed.

My last 2.5 hours of conferences actually flew by, but not in the 'fun' sense. They were busy and fast and WEIRD.

For example, I had a mom come see me about her daughter's B-. Really? I don't know...maybe I've been teaching there too long, but a B- is NUTHIN'. I've seen parents praise their kids for a B-, and I've seen them say "B- in COMPUTERS? But you're on the computer all day! How'd you get a B-?"

(Note to parents: just because your kid can turn on the damn computer doesn't mean that they are proficient, nor does it mean they're turning in the work they're assigned.)

Anyway, this mom comes to see me, and I'd never seen this woman before in my life. Most of the time, that's a good thing. If you don't need to see parents, their kids are generally pretty swell. So Mom comes in and asks if she can speak to me about Linda's* grade. I said okay, but I had to ask which Linda, because there are about 10 of them in the school. We have to call them by their first name and last initial...Linda R.......Linda G.......Linda A.....Linda S.....

Mom turns around, says something in Spanish, and in walks Linda. I laughed.

This particular Linda is probably the one kid in that class I don't worry about. I'd never met her mom, but you just knew that her mom was riding her and not only asking if she did her homework, but checking up on her and actuallying doing her homework with her. This mom knows what happens everyday, who her teachers are, when she has gym class, and if she doesn't eat lunch by 12 she's going to get a little nauseous. She's a MOM.

I explained to her that Linda is one of the brightest in the class, but her constant talking in the last month of the quarter brought her down. When I said that, Linda made a face, Mom made a face, and Linda looked at Mom with that "Sorry! Oops...?" face. I explained that we're working on switching seats and hopefully she won't be so close to people that she's prone to talking to (but Linda's a nice kid, so she's friends with just about everyone). Mom is cooperative and put the blame fully on her daughter, and her daughter is a good kid; very cooperative, attentive, and bright. One of the ones you really enjoy having in class.

My next conference was pretty sucky. I happened upon it by accident, actually. I was walking downstairs to find another parent and found one I'd requested a conference with last time but it didn't happen. This was the kind of conference that was emotionally draining, really. Single parent with a kid who's pretty much out of control. She didn't make excuses for her kids but admitted that she didn't know how to handle things and was getting really stressed out. I felt for her but that conference lasted until 7:30 p.m. and the day ended at 7:00. Yeesh. I packed up my crap and ran out as fast as I could after that one.

I'm so glad I'm finally on break. I love that I can relax and stay in my pjs all day if I want. I LOVE that I don't have to think about working until next week.

And once we get back: 7 more weeks!

One more hour!

So help me Jesus, one more hour!

Three more hours

We've reached the halfway point in conferences and I'm totally ready to go home. I've played with the website, talked to 2 parents, and I'm done. I want to go home, put on my jammies, drink some wine, and watch someone get kicked off Idol. Is that so wrong?

The Hardest Part of the Year

Students AND teachers tend to get stressed and slap-happy this time of year. The second semester and 4th quarter especially seem so much longer than the first semester. Hell, the 4th quarter seems like an entire semester in itself. 10 weeks? Might as well be 10 months!

Different factors contribute to the overall decline in participation, focus, preparation and overall sense of "care". For students, as the weather gets warmer their minds get lazier. They start staring out the window a little more and it takes an extra 5 minutes to get them inside after recess. Some of them are dreaming about baseball practice, some of them are thinking about tanning, and the rest are either counting down until the last day of school or they're counting the number of tiles in the ceiling. For teachers, what really tends to make the days drag on and seem stressier than usual is usually the craziness and lack of focus in their students (judging solely from a random sampling of my coworkers, that is).

Once the kids start to lose focus and stop caring, it's hard as hell for teachers to keep it up! Personally, I start to think, "If they don't care, why should I?" All of a sudden I find I'm grading a little harsher and I'm snapping on students earlier than I did in the fall semester. It's not that I don't like the kids, far from it! It's just enormously depressing and stressing to feel like the only one out of 30 people who gives a hoot.

The problem with Spring is that there are SO. MANY. DISTRACTIONS. I'm sure it's different in climates that experience fewer differences in seasons, but living in Chicago is a nightmare. In the fall, the kids turn psycho the first time it snows. In the spring, they lose it on the first warm day. Not only that, but in the fall you have the knowledge that each warm day could be the last one. In the spring the days just get warmer and warmer and the kids inherently know that summer is coming. (Believe you me, they aren't the only ones. I've already got a countdown going on my desk calendar in my room. Each morning I cross off another day and count my blessings. ) As the days get warmer, the kids start itching to get outside and forget all about school. That's so draining on a teacher. Suddenly I start feeling like I have to dig a little deeper in my bag of tricks to get and keep their attention. "I WILL find a way to maintain order! I WILL!" Oy vey.

There are always ways to discipline kids, of course, but the closer it gets to the end of the year the more it seems pointless. You can give a kid so many detentions but sooner or later you'll run out of time. No one's crazy enough to demand a student show up after the school year has ended, and some parents would be angry enough to start World War Three in my classroom if I kept a student beyond the required number of days. Especially in the area I teach in, many parents and families spend the summers in Mexico, Texas, California, or Puerto Rico (or wherever) with family. By the last days of school plane tickets have been ordered, hotel rooms have been booked, families have been notified, and al the plans have been made. Asking/demanding them to stay without plenty of notice (more than a month in some instances) doesn't solve any problems and asking the wrong parent can turn the child against you and make the last days hellish.

When student behavior starts to turn, I've found that calling a parent early on helps. The parent is at least aware of the situation and can possibly work out a compromise with you. Regular phone or in person conferencing keeps the parent aware of the situation and the student can at least know that the teacher and the parents are speaking and any major infractions will be imparted to the parents. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but it can't hurt!

When dealing with younger students, I almost hate to say it, I do stickers. Seriously. Whoever invented the sticker is a demi-god. Kids respond so well to stickers and sticker charts it's beyond ridiculous. It starts to wear off around the middle of 3rd grade, but from Pre-K to 3rd stickers are my go-to. Each student gets a sticker chart with his/her name on it and they get one sticker per day provided their behavior is good. They start comparing charts and counting their stickers and suddenly they're motivated again! It's a miracle.

As for me, I'm just hanging in there. I'm well into the single digit countdown for spring break! After that, it's a few weeks before Memorial Day weekend, and after that....sweet, sweet summer. Oh how I love the word! Can't wait for it!

Report Card time, a.k.a. YUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!

I wish that teachers never had to give report cards. I really do. It's time consuming and irritating, to be topped only by the day-long marathon they call Parent/Teacher(/Student) conferences. Blech. Calculating grades is time consuming and I hate doing it, therefore I don't do it unless I have to or I'm asked by a student what grade they're currently earning (or not earning).

It's depressing, too. Unfortunately it's living proof that they aren't getting it. While that's not always the fault of the teacher, it's still really depressing. Annoyingly so, in fact. You, as an educator, have to come face to face with the fact that no matter what you did, no matter how many hours you spent with the child, you still didn't 'do it' and they still didn't 'get it'. Ugh. Who needs that?

For someone in my position, Parent/Teacher conferences are always awkward and annoying. You're an 'extra' teacher and many parents don't even bother to try and meet you at the beginning of the year. However, the ones you do end up meeting are usually pretty pissed at you once they show up--typically at conferences. 9 times out of 10 parents come to me wanting a darn good explanation as to why Jr. didn't get a decent grade. Once I show them the proof in the numbers, they either turn the tables on Jr. and demand they take responsibility for their grades, or they're still pissed at me and essentially demand I change their child's grade. (Those are typically the parents who always, always believe the child over the teacher and usually believe the teacher is in fact 'picking on' their child for whatever reason.)

In the past I've just let the parents come to me, but the ones who SHOULD don't always come. On occassion you get the parent who is confused as to why their child received a B--shouldn't they be getting an A in this subject? It's supposed to be easy, right? This quarter, I am requesting to meet with certain parents and students. If anything it will keep me a little busier during the 7-hour conference marathon, and I'll really be able to talk to the parents whose children I'm concerned for. However, just because they're scheduled doesn't mean they'll show up. I'm not sure which will be more annoying--being blown off by the schedule, or just being ignored all afternoon. I guess I'll find out.

Follow up

I'm feeling better today. I took some Tylenol PM and was knocked out about an hour later. I'll probably take some more tonight so I can train my body to sleep for the next few days. One thing's for sure...waking up was hard with sleep meds still in my system. I feel like I might need to take them earlier so they've worn off by the time I need to wake up. I was fighting with my body this morning, and sleep kept winning.

Waking up rested makes a world of difference. This time yesterday I felt like crawling into a hole and sleeping. Now I'm still a bit tired, but I'm aware of time and space. Awesome.

Off to teach the little ones. Only 20 days till Spring Break!