Like a great, big pile of dishes to be done after a party.
I finished! I survived! Those last two weeks of school, I have to honestly say I had checked out.
I switched with another teacher and had Great America duty with the 8th graders instead of the lake with the 7th graders. It was fun. Did not ride the drop tower. Did ride the upside down boat. Sat in the cool darkness of a Snoopy ice show after wandering around in the heat and sun for six hours. Told off a few of our boys who decided it was ok to go around shirtless. Told off even more of our girls who decided skimpy bikini tops were enough to wear in public places. It's as if they all stripped once they got off the bus.
Read names at advancement of my first period advisory class. Next year, I'm wearing a hat. We sit with our class, and walk up with our class, and walk back down at the end of the line with our class. It was oddly satisfying to see my students dressed up and behaving like proper grown up people. Proud of them.
Cleaned and checked out my room for the summer. Holy cow was there a long list of signatures to get! I didn't even check any books out this year and I still had to have the librarian sign my form. The most confusing thing was getting a handle on my students' textbooks. Thank goodness I only teach math, and that my kids are only issued one book each. Can't imagine what it's like if each kid had two or three books all year, like in English. Learned a few good lessons about textbook inventory time, which I will apply next year.
Next year. I will be a 2nd year teacher. Met up with a friend from UTEC this past Monday - one of the first summer-type things I did - and we both congratulated each other on a 1st year well done. She said,
"Who knew we would get this far?"Who knew indeed? In June 2009, I was in despair of ever getting a teaching credential at all. In June 2010, I was in despair of ever getting a teaching job at all. Well, I got both with a lot of hard work, a lot of luck, a lot of persistence, and a lot of drama (on my part).
Less drama now, but I'm still relying on the hard work and luck and persistence. Just because it's summer doesn't mean it's completely a down-time season for me. I've got things in the works, projects to do, people to meet, lessons to re-work, assessments to create, ideas to fully flesh out.
But for this first week of summer, I'm doing nothing related to teaching. Gotta give myself that much.
3 comments:
Haha! I'm curious as to how you told off your students! :)
Our school used to have those long, onerous sign-out sheets. For years I never finished mine, letting it languish on my desk in my office all summer. Never got reprimanded, never got my pay docked. Finally, the last two years I taught, they minimized the number of signatures you needed, and on my last day, I turned in my sheet with my keys. I had not turned in my keys for 20 years. That really felt odd.
Michelle: I gave them the "evil teacher eye" and they got the hint for the most part. It's not the most dignified thing (for me or for the kids) if I yelled at them in public - like some parents do (i.e. at walmart). They're not bad kids. They're just...kids. =p
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