Winding Down

The school year is coming to a close at EHL Middle and High. On Thursday, the 8th graders took a field trip roller skating, which was interesting! I thought I wasn't too bad, but I had a hard time keeping up with 14 year olds 2 stepping and walking it out on skates. This Thursday, we'll be going bowling. I am not too good at bowling, but it will be fun anyway.

Last week, I had my last day with my 8th graders. This 3 day week and next week (4 days) I have only my 7th, 9th, and 10th graders. In each of my three 8th grade classes, we said goodbye as best we could. Each class was only half as long as normal, because of various school-wide activities. I wrote each student a letter and handed those out, and the students filled out a year reflection sheet and survey. After the letters, several of the students were in tears.

My kids were upset that I was not crying with them. I told them, even though this is the last time we will hold class, I am going to see you everyday for the next week. Still, there is something that made me feel empty after holding my last eighth grade class.

I am very saddened that this year is over. I met with my Teach For America Program Director (Erica) last week. She said I did an awesome job, and if she had a TFA Crown, she'd give it to me. That made me feel fantastic. Considering all things, I did a great job this year, and my students did even better. My students achieved significant academic gains this year, and I am incredibly proud.

I am sure that I will have more as these end of year days continue.

Insanity

Since I posted "home stretch", many things have gone awry.

There was a rather large drug bust in my classroom in April, breaking the record at my school. It was some marijuana, and it would not have been found unless the student had so much that it fell out of his pocket.

Additionally, this week we had a bomb scare. There is no way to verbalize the terror of something like that. We believe that it was a student who noticed all the media attention and thought a piece of the pie wouldn't be too bad. It ended up just being a threat. Nonetheless, we had to hold students in the classrooms for over 2 hours while police K-9 units canvassed the buildings. They didn't tell us what was going on, just that nobody was to leave any classroom under any circumstances.

Try keeping kids calm and focused on working when there are police dogs sniffing at the door, and announcements every 20 minutes about how it is very important we stay put. Try it, I dare you.

The next day there was something of a threat phoned into my classroom. It was a prank call to bother one of my students, but still very stressful.

I can't believe the year is almost over. I have only 5 more classes with my 8th graders. I think I will definitely cry on the last day of school.

To sum up: a lot of stress lately and the end is in sight.