Is It Friday Yet?

My new morning view.

What a week. And it’s not even quite over yet. We are in the midst of our first round of testing for the year. I have only had to proctor one test even though I teach Language and Reading to two grades (= 4 possible tests to proctor). I've had a lot of down time due to the testing schedule, but I'm still feeling glad tomorrow is Friday.

Maybe I'm still adjusting to the school year... Or maybe I'm just in sync with my students and feeling a smidge of what they must be feeling during their first of three  testing sessions throughout the school year. Or you know, it could be that I attended the funeral of a former parent on Monday and stayed up late last night to watch a soccer game.

I can't say it's been a bad week. Or even that Monday was awful. Okay - it wasn't good. The former parent who passed away was seriously the smileyest human being I've ever met. I taught fifth grade to both of his kids, the grade that is the mushy middle of the K-8 system, the grade where kids really become adolescents before, during, or quite shortly after. I have taught fifth grade classes with students losing teeth every other day. I have taught fifth grade classes with several girls getting their first periods on my watch. It's an interesting age to be sure. I ran into him on the baseball field (my son was practicing flag football) and in the grocery store. And I still can't recall a time when I saw him without a smile. I hope someone can someday say the same of me. I know I'm not there yet, but it's something to aspire to.

The funeral was hard. His kids were too young to have to deal with his death. He made a positive impact on his community in many ways, including a myriad of ways I never knew. I had to ask my new co-workers to cover my responsibilities at my new school and ate my lunch (a peanut butter sandwich and banana) in the car as I drove between my new school and the old one where the funeral was held. I ended up with a pre-migraine in the early evening, and sent myself to bed at 7:00pm as a result. Monday was hard.

But it was good too. Three of my new co-workers covered for me without pause or question. They were happy to help me and glad that I was able to attend the funeral. I saw several former co-workers and students who seemed as grateful to see me as I was to see them. I am grateful to feel that I am already part of my new community. I am excited for the year ahead with kind, compassionate people who have welcomed me into their community and so very blessed to still feel a part of the community I have left.

My principal came into my classroom for his first informal walk through of the school year this week too. I was trying to engage eighth graders in a lesson on the different kinds of pronouns. Did you know there are personal, possessive, reflexive, relative, interrogative, and demonstrative pronouns in an eighth grade textbook? So, yeah. Yay pronouns! In the afternoon. The eighth graders are a great group of kids. Not hard to engage, but hard to focus. In the midst of my lesson, one of my students who shares my first name, said, "I like your hair." I could and should have brought her comment into my lesson - after all there were two pronouns in her statement - but all I said was, "How is that relevant now?" Of course her friend said, "It's relevant to her! She likes your hair!" At least the kids are comfortable in my room, right?

We had a fire drill this week too. It was my first one at this school, and I did not have students during the drill due to the aforementioned testing schedule. The sixth graders did well. Very well. They were more quiet than their neighboring classes and were patient with the cross traffic out to the field, letting younger students pass in front of them.

Can you see how wet my shoes are after the fire drill?

I've emailed parents regarding their students' progress and consulted the counselor. I have been working with the marketing director to get my webpage operational. I am not feeling overwhelmed with my workload... which feels weird on some level, but is also quite liberating.

I know I made the correct decision in coming to this school. I already feel like I'm home.

Curriculum Night

I know it sounds crazy, but I had a blast at Curriculum Night. I was kind of dreading it, being that it was the first time I was presenting as a middle school teacher. I had to write handouts from scratch - not that I didn't have models to follow, but I had nothing already ready that just needed a tweak or two. I had to create a PowerPoint presentation to show parents, mostly to keep myself on track, and not forget to say something important. I had to present to two different sets of parents (8th grade and 6th grade) at the same time, in three back to back sessions. And before all that, I had to introduce myself to every parent that attended the pre-meeting. With a microphone.

I had a cup of coffee at 5:00pm, which I think helped tremendously. Being at work from 6:30am-8:30pm, with a brief run to dinner with a few other teachers, is very wearing.  But apparently I didn't present as tired. I was told parents in the pre-meeting were happy to have teacher who is excited and passionate about middle school humanities, that I appeared to be really enthusiastic during the third session, and that I seem to be a "college track" teacher. I'm not quite sure what that means, but I'm pretty sure it was meant as a high compliment.

I began each session with a joke. I projected a slide of basic professional info about myself - where I got my degrees, how long I've been teaching, where, and at what grade levels. I got my Bachelor's from U.C. Davis, so I opened with, "I got my Bachelor's from U.C. Davis, don't hate me because I'm originally from California." The next slide had pictures of my family, including one of my boys standing next to the 12-angled stone (discovered by my Dad's uncle) in a wall in Cuzco, Peru. I told these parents, the most ethnically diverse I've ever presented to at Curriculum Night, "Soy media peruana, pero no hablo español muy bien." Both lines got a laugh. I'm sure I won't have any problem working with these parents... at least not the ones that showed up and heard me talk about when, where, and how student work should be turned in. "If they tell you they didn't know where to turn something in or that they didn't know something was collected, they are lying to you."

I had all the sixth and eighth graders work to create my newest display. I led a discussion about what makes a great leader, and each class came up with their own definition, which students had to copy onto a worksheet. Then they were asked to name three "great leaders" known outside their immediate community. Then they wrote a short explanation, that connected back to the class definition, of what makes each one a great leader. Finally, they had to find a quote from one of these leaders and put it on a document in a fun font and sized to take up the entire page, being sure to attribute the words to the great leader who spoke them. It was a great activity to start off the year, and I was able to cover a wall with work generated by students in time for Curriculum Night.

I hope the energy carries forward into the remainder of the school year, and that I can replicate the same enthusiasm and connection to parents at next year's Curriculum Night.

First Week Interactions

How we were greeted the first morning.

The first week of school is officially behind me. As always it's been a long week, and my back, legs, and voice are all sore. It was crazy, chaotic, and I am not yet used to my new schedule. But I can genuinely say that I am enjoying my new co-workers and am happy to be in this building.

I had some fun/funny interactions this week:

When the middle school teachers were filling me in on the rules and expectations that were going to be presented to the students:

Me: And telling them the expectation is their warning. They don't need another one if they break the rule.

Fellow teacher: I like how strict you are!

A seventh grade student came to introduce herself to me even though I don't teach seventh grade. As she was eyeing the Harry Potter book ends that are on either end of the series she asked, "Do you like Harry Potter?" I motioned to the corner where I have five Albus Dumbledore quotes on display and she responded, "That's a yes!"

8th grade student A: Are your outfits always going to be so color coordinated?

Student B: Yeah, your earrings, even your eyeshadow and toenails match.

Me: Probably not every day.

Student A: You even have purple in your hair!

Student B: You got it going on!

Student A (singing): Stacy's Mom has got it going on.

The next day:

Student A: You said you wouldn't always be so color coordinated. I feel lied to.

Me: It's only the third day of school.

Student A: But it's been every day!

8th grade student (working on a first day getting to know you worksheet): How do you spell             ?"

Me: It doesn't matter. Get all the sounds in there and I'll know what you mean.

Student: You are my favorite teacher ever!

The year is off to a great start! I can't wait to see what next week brings.

'Twas the Weekend Before the Start of School

I live and work where most schools still don't begin a new year until after Labor Day. My new students will arrive for their first day tomorrow (Tuesday), and my own kids don't have their first day until Thursday.

As one of eight (nine if you count the principal) new staff members in the building, I had an extra meeting the first week of the school.  I sat next to the new school counselor. My new school has a full time school counselor! That is exciting enough, as I have never worked in a building where this was true. But she also has two years of experience working for social services and two years building a positive culture back into a school where students had been told there were "no rules". She has a solid plan for how to help social emotional learning in the building, and is going to be teaching an advisory class once a week to every middle schooler. This is an amazing amount of support that I've never had on the social emotional side of working with kids. I like to think I've done more than okay with it on my own, but I can't wait to see what's possible with all of the above in place.

Before and after the meetings scheduled for last week I put together my new space, and tried to get to know a few of my new colleagues. I am proud of my new space and how it came together, although I am a little concerned that I might walk in tomorrow morning to find literary device posters or positive character trait adjectives all over the floor... Both of which needed re-affixing over the past week. I finally started using larger than what I thought were necessary strips of gaff tape. 

Ah gaff tape... I had forgotten how amazingly useful gaff tape is. I used the stuff regularly back in college when I worked for the university's theatre department. It holds beautifully and comes off clean, with no residue. In theatre it's used to hold down cables for the duration of a show.  When the wrong tape is used, say duct tape, coiling the cables during the strike, is annoyingly sticky. When one of my new co-workers told me we have to use gaff tape on the painted walls so the paint won't peel off, it was an epiphany. Really, why on earth had I never thought to use it in my classroom before now? But I digress...

I came home on Friday and made a list of everything I needed to accomplish this weekend. I tackled the syllabi first. I needed three - one for sixth grade ELA, one for eight grade ELA, and one for eighth grade history. 

Several threads about syllabi had come through the teacher groups I've joined on Facebook, so I did a search, and quickly found links to editable infographic syllabi. Since I'm new to this role, and didn't have a model of what previous teachers have handed out, I decided less is more. I also know that no one really wants to read paragraphs and paragraphs of information about my classes; the best I can hope for is a solid skim from students or parents who know they *should* read it, but get distracted from reading it closely. Infographic seemed like the best format. I started editing one of the versions I had downloaded from Teacher Pay Teachers, but wasn't totally happy with a quote that was not editable: "If you want to learn no one can stop you, if  you don't want to try no one can help you." The words were in quotation marks, but not attributed to anyone, and I didn't want one of the first impressions I was giving students and parents to include the words "no one can help you." The negative connotation I felt upon reading it was not something I wanted to pass on. I didn't like the pictures as well on the second one I downloaded. Noticing both of the downloads were created in PowerPoint, I started playing around and discovered it was easy and fun to create my own infographic syllabus. I spent more time than necessary tweaking my syllabi, but I loved every minute of it, and get a little thrill of excitement looking at the printed copies I have ready to handout. I have also saved them as .pdf files for uploading to the school's website when I get access.  

I was so proud of my first syllabus that I posted a .pdf of it to one of my teacher groups on Facebook and immediately got requests from teachers wanting to buy an editable version. It was still quite difficult to edit, as the pictures were not static, and I promised them I would look into fixing it up for others to edit sometime after school started. But I was having so much fun playing around with my syllabi that I took the time to figure out how to make all the pictures one background image, and posted it to TpT for $.95. Supposedly I can do one better, and make the pictures part of a "master slide" so they can't accidentally be deleted, but I haven't figured that part out yet... so I'll have to upload a revision when I get that done, because people have already started to purchase it.

I moved on to writing out lesson plans for the first week of school, gathering documents I had previously created, and creating new ones for use during the first week. I think I've used a whole ream of paper for the first week!  I made a student schedule to hand out to my homeroom kids.  I found a great list of questions to ask on the first day of school and created a list of questions to rotate on the chalkboard in the back of my room ala #parkwaycares. 

I'm as ready as I can be without going into school to do the three things I want to do there before the kids walk in: put student names on planners, label the turn in slots with numbers, and write up the first question on the chalkboard in the back with my nifty new chalkboard markers. 

This is when the nervous energy kicks in for me. I'm ready, but there's still time to do more! That's why I'm blogging this morning. Maybe I'll find time to write a poem or two later today. "'Twas the Night Before the Start of School" could become a poem title, right?

New School, New Room, New Grade Level

I signed a contract in June for a new school, teaching Humanities to middle schoolers. (Oh the humanity!) - I'm only slightly embarrassed at how often I've thought those words since signing... 

I took the WEST-E (test required for getting a new endorsement added to a teaching certificate) mid-level humanities sub test 1 on Monday. It was the ELA test, and it was easy for me. Now I just need to register for sub test 2 and study for the social studies test, which I expect will be harder for me. 

When I started out in the 2000-2001 school year, I was a third grade teacher, and, no joke, the fifth graders made me nervous in the hallway. My second teaching job, after taking two years off when my second son was born, was teaching fifth graders. Once my initial shock and extreme anxiety wore off, I fell in love with the job and knew 10-11 year olds were in the sweet spot, the mushy middle of the K-8 system: not primary students, but not middle school students. However, I also knew fifth grade homeroom was my upper limit, and I would *never* become a middle school teacher. After all, I had a sixth grade history class at that school, and as much as I loved seeing the same kids two years in a row, and as much as I loved the subject matter (Ancient Civilizations), at the end of the year, I was happy to say goodbye to the sixth graders and send them on to seventh grade.

Then life happened. After a second fifth grade gig at a third school, I left to "stay home." That lasted half a school year... I ended up subbing in middle school <gasp> ELA from February to June. And I discovered I was GOOD at it. And I LOVED it. WHAT?? Well, I do live with teenagers now. I have more understanding of the age group, more street cred with them, and a whole lot more sympathy for what life must be like for them.

So here I am, signed on to teach sixth grade homeroom, religion, and ELA and eighth grade ELA and history. At a new school. I'm both super excited and getting more and more nervous as summer comes to a close. My class load is very similar to what I taught, very successfully, on the fly, as a fill in, just-a-sub for half the school year last year. Instead of seventh grade ELA I have eighth grade social studies. But both fifth and eighth grade social studies is U.S. History, so I know the material well, and already have several well-vetted units and projects that can be easily adapted for an older audience - particularly an audience who has never seen the units or projects in question.

August got busy on me. My sixteen year old is in driver's ed in the middle of the day, four days a week. My thirteen year old signed up for one week of day camp, in the middle of August. My parents came to visit. I'm taking one more trip, a long weekend with a friend who would not otherwise get a vacation at all this summer. I have an extra day of in-service on the calendar since I'm new to the building. It's my birthday next week. My husband is going to a national conference related to his career next week, where he will present information and be on a panel (and yes, be across the country on my birthday).

Even with this busy agenda, I've managed to get into my new classroom for two hours at a time several days this month. With the help of my husband and kids, the furniture has been moved. The facilities guys painted over the wall that got exposed with the furniture re-arrangement and cleaned the years of accumulated muck off the floor that suddenly became visible.  They even shored up an unstable support on my desk.  I made friends with them: thanking them profusely and apologizing for creating extra work in August while chit-chatting about the schools I've worked at prior to landing here.  I believe I will continue to have their quick and friendly support when I need it from here on out.

I've spent a lot of time on ELA and social studies teacher groups on Facebook this summer, and started my classroom set up with room decorations. I thought I might bring in a large Wonder Woman poster that has come into my possession, but fell in love with many Dumbledore quotes to adorn my walls.  Alas, Wonder Woman doesn't quite fit in with a Harry Potter theme. I copied a positive affirmation idea from another teacher on one of the Facebook pages. I can't wait to pull the whole room together, and am loving what I have up already.

I'm spending time getting to know the front office staff, the facilities staff, and the IT/security guy.  I've seen the principal (who is also new to the building) in passing more than many of the other teachers who have been in the building for years. 

I've gotten enough room set up done that I can comfortably take a week off to visit with my parents, celebrate my birthday, and take a trip with my friend. Part of me wishes there was nothing on my calendar except room set up and rough curriculum mapping for the remainder of the month. But the truth is, even if I couldn't touch the space again until days before school starts, I'd be ready for the kids on day one. This week off will be good for me. I know what I'm doing. I'm a good teacher. I will help kids reach their potential.

 And gosh darn it, people like me.

All Wrapped Up

I don't remember being this tired on the last day of school ever. I'm hoping it's a sign of how busy the last week has been and not a sign of how old I'm getting. All the graduations did make for lots of late nights and the last two days were physically more demanding than most, with field day and moving all the classroom furniture into the hallway. I came home from the staff party and took a two hour nap. I could have fallen back asleep, but decided sleeping tonight was more important than feeling fully rested this evening.

I was so tired during the variety show yesterday that I had to get up and walk around about halfway through in order to keep myself from nodding off. And I love the variety show at this school.  There are some very talented kids who play instruments or sing every year. This year there was a first grade girl who sang with precision and technique, on key all the way through her song. There are also several silly skits and many classes do something that is open to every student who wants to join.  Parent involvement is high, but the best part is that everyone is well supported, cheered for, and made to feel like their performance was amazing. It takes a lot of courage to get up there without any real performance experience, but every year kids do and walk away with their confidence intact, or even boosted.

A parent and staff member leading preschoolers

in the Gummy Bear dance.

As busy as the last week of school was for me, my students wrapped up the year watching Duck Tales from the 1980s during any significant down time we had this last week.  By Tuesday they were asking to watch even when there was clearly not enough time to get through one 22 minute episode. By Thursday they came in singing the theme song and everyone sang along with it at the start of each new episode. I'll have to remember this for next year - it certainly kept the kids motivated to finish tasks or clean quietly in order to be able to watch even partial episodes.

So much fun to hear them all singing along.

I'm surprised that my emotional state has been pretty even. I felt some sense of loss when I read thank you cards written by the sixth graders made during one of their last social studies classes. Most cards did a great job of thanking me for something specific or referring to something I taught during the past four months. And walking through the hallways for the last time today, after I turned in my keys, produced some sadness. But as I was on my way to the staff party, it didn't last long.

I am so grateful I had the opportunity to return to this school and make a positive difference for the community during a very challenging circumstance. Several fifth graders and their families expressed disappointment that I won't be in the sixth grade homeroom position next year. Several families of students I taught this year expressed gratitude at my writing instruction and disappointment that I won't be continuing. The principal said she felt like she was going to cry when she said goodbye to me in front of the school. The whole experience has been very healing and confidence building for me.

I'm very excited about next year. I can't wait to get back into my own classroom and join a new team. It's going to be great.

The Last Week

This year I have four graduations to attend within the space of week. Three are eighth grade graduations for local Catholic schools where I have worked, and one is a high school graduation for my niece in the Portland area. The first graduation was on Thursday night, followed by a crazy drive south on Friday for the second one, in the midst of some intense spring rain, during heavy traffic, with a deadline to see my niece graduate. We made it, but just barely. Seriously - my brother in law has video of us cutting across the field just past the barrier meant to stop us seconds before the graduates walk out. Or so I'm told... I haven't actually seen the video. Today was the day after graduation number three, the day before graduation number four. So when a co-worker saw me after I took my turn in the center of carpool after school this afternoon, and told me I looked like I needed a nap, I wasn't offended, and I totally believed her.

Yesterday a new tradition was born at the school where I've been subbing since February. The graduating eighth graders sat facing the rest of the school while the principal read their favorite memories of each grade level. After each set of memories was read, current students from that grade came up and delivered a handmade gift to each eighth grader. Most of the building is getting new furniture next year, and the science teacher/7th grade homeroom teacher worked with her 2nd grade buddy class to decorate the lab stools that otherwise would have been thrown out. They gave the graduating class a survey of likes and dislikes and turned it into a poem read aloud to the whole school by the super cute, eight year old second graders, and incorporated into the decorations on the stools. I'm sure every student who ever sat on one of those stools but didn't get one is jealous that there weren't enough to go around. I'm a little jealous!

In the midst of all of the graduations and regular school duties plus end of the school year traditions, I am of course, trying to close out the school year in someone else's classroom. It's both harder and easier than closing out my own room. I want to make sure everything I'm putting away will be found again, and I'm not sure what I should throw away/recycle vs. file away. But I'm also taking back the mental mantle of "I'm just a sub" in a big way. It became necessary when I got an email telling me I needed to turn my keys in "by Friday." I literally laughed out loud when I read that. Friday is the last day of school. If I prioritize report cards and cumulative record cards, the room might not actually be ready before I've been told my keys to the building need to be out of my hands. I can do what I can do with the time I have left, and then I'll gladly hand over my keys. Sorry (not sorry) summer cleaning crew. Sorry (not sorry) next year's teacher.

I've exchanged personal contact information with the members of the middle school team I'm leaving and the staff there continue to express disappointment (and understanding) that I won't be returning next year. I've made plans to meet up with several former co-workers over the summer. I'm ready for next week when I get to sleep in and only have to worry about my boys, my house, my dog.

But I'm very excited for next year too. I've worked with the current middle school team for about four months, and know I have made an impact on them. Last night my former principal expressed a sincere interest in working with me again. I was also told by a teacher at my former school that I showed the teachers there "what kids are really capable of" and raised the bar for their teaching expectations.  (I'm pretty sure I'm going to be using that particular compliment to feed my soul for years to come.)  I love what I do, and apparently I'm pretty good at it.

That should sustain me through the final graduation, field day, the variety show, and moving desks out of classrooms on the last day, right?

Decisions, Decisions

I spent the weekend discerning where I want to be next school year. The recovery of the teacher I am currently subbing for continues, slow and steady. I was offered the position for which I interviewed last week. The call came on Thursday evening, and I asked for the weekend to decide. Going into the weekend I was convinced that staying put was the logical decision, but the emotional side of me wanted to strike out on a new adventure. I didn't understand the emotional pull.  Actually, I still don't understand it.

I went out to dinner with my husband on Friday night to talk without the kids overhearing the maybes and taking them as definitelys. I left the restaurant convinced I would accept the offer of the new position on Monday morning. But on Saturday morning, as I sat in front of my plan book trying to fit in the remaining lessons among the end of year schedule interruptions, my heart grew heavy at the idea of leaving the community for a second time. The emotional pull flipped to the school where I spent the majority of my career, and had (once upon a time) thought I would stay for the remainder of it. 

Throughout the application and interview process, I remained convinced that staying put, if possible, was the commonsense decision. I believed that "on paper" - if I were to make a list of pros and cons - the current school with the sub job would win. But the gut feeling that going somewhere new was the right choice had been there from the moment I read about the job opening at the new school. The flip in my gut feeling on Saturday morning made me decide to sit down and actually write out the pros and cons of each position. I knew that there really wasn't a "wrong" decision or a bad choice, but I had to make a decision. 

I turns out, I can't think of a single specific con related to the new position, just a bunch of unknowns. The biggest unknown is the principal, who has yet to be hired for next school year. I'm perfectly aware that the unknowns are rife with possibility for several cons, but they are also rife with possibility of at least as many pros. On paper, the new position won out. I was very surprised. 

I signed a contract for next school year at the new school today. The outgoing principal took me on a tour and I was able to at least shake hands with two of the teachers on the middle school team I am joining. I'm very excited for the new adventure ahead, but it is a little bittersweet. I got an email this morning that showed me the impact I've had on the kids I've been teaching for the past four months. When I told the members of my current middle school team I had accepted the offer at the other school, all of them expressed disappointment that I won't be there next school year. 

I expect my emotions will be on a bit of a roller coaster for the next week and half, until the last day of school. But somehow it all feels right. I am incredibly grateful I got to return to the school where I spent eight years teaching fifth grade with a great reception from students and families. I also learned that I love teaching middle schoolers to become more reflective readers and better writers. The past four months have healed an old wound and shown me a new side of myself as a teacher. I'm ready for the next chapter in my professional life.

Interviewing

So I had an interview today. Actually it was a second interview, where I had to teach a lesson to a group of eighth graders I had never met before. I will likely never see any of them again, even if I am offered the job, because they will be heading to high school in the fall. It's a weird thing, to teach a lesson as part of a job interview. It's not really a true look at someone's teaching style, but it is as close as you can get without going to a classroom that is actually theirs and watching them do what they do in their own space, with their kids.

Planning a lesson for kids I will only ever teach for the one class period is awkward. I don't know what skills they have or what kind of cross curricular connections or connections to their lives are possible. I am not afforded the opportunity to assign homework or let them think about an idea overnight and return to it the next day. Any course correction that I needed to make during the lesson still required all of the everything I was trying to accomplish to come to an end before the students were dismissed for lunch. 

I don't really know how it went. I had fun. I think some of the kids even got something out of the lesson that they can take with them to future writing assignments. But even during the lesson I was thinking about things I could have and should have done differently. There are at least five things I can think of without too much effort that I wish I had said that I didn't. I'm trying not to think about it too much.

I was able to identify the student who needed the most attention with writing. He had some fantastic ideas, but hesitated to put them into his brainstorm. He didn't start writing a paragraph at all. He was supposed to be elaborating on the sentence "I was angry." He preferred to engage in philosophical debate over getting angry vs. being inconvenienced. I really enjoyed this kid, and wished I had the privilege of spending more time working with him. When I lamented to the principal that I couldn't get this kid to write anything, he assured me, "No one can." But oh, the ideas locked in his brain. There has to be a way to unlock the potential inside this kid. But I digress...

On the way out, the principal asked to see the paragraphs the kids wrote and told me he was going to try to get back to me about a decision tomorrow or the next day. I'm trying not to read into the speed. I know the school year is coming to a close and he wants the whole thing wrapped up. Me too... I want to know what I'm doing next year.

Not My Circus?

I've been having a hard time finding time to write these past several weeks. Spring is a busy time of year for teachers. Arguably the busiest time of year. Besides all the usual report card time things to do, with the added detail that all units need to be wrapped up with a neat little bow - rather than just allowing some units to span two grading terms, we have end of the year student activities added to the mix. We've already had the eighth grade play, end of the year standardized testing, the fifth grade state presentations, and the annual school carnival. Still to come are the annual patrol field trip, the eighth grade dinner dance, eighth, grade graduation and baccalaureate mass, field day, and the variety show. There's the whole classroom cleanout thing too, but as a long-term sub, I have exactly five personal items in the classroom (and some cool pens that I brought in) that I will feel responsible for packing up and taking with me on the last day. 

One of the five personal items.

A surprise attack of compliments

from the extension kids one evening.

I love it, but it also makes me sad.

The whole part about being "just a sub" after spending half of the school year in the role is awkward, even more so as the school year closes out. The building is abuzz with plans for next year, conversations about new policies and grand expectations are everywhere.  I don't fit into all that, and it feels weird. My opinion, as a veteran teacher who used to work in the building, has been solicited many times, and I participate openly in all of these conversations... but somewhere in the back of my head I can't help but think to myself, "This is not my circus." I don't want to feel a vested interest in what comes next year for the school because I don't know that I'll be working there. If I start to care too much, It'll make it that much harder to leave at the end of the year.

I'm trying to keep the students engaged as we close out the school year. I am doing all of my regular end of the year reflective activities, which turns out to be a lot of letter writing. I'm taking advantage of the weather when I can, and holding lessons outside when possible. I'm planning collaborative activities, and thinking up ways to make lessons hands on.

Vocabulary Concentration

Reading outside

Collaboration

I also took an active roll in the carnival fun this year, volunteering for the "dunk tank." The school apparently had an actual dunk tank for a few years, but historically, and again this year, there is a person standing at the top of the outside stairs with a garbage can full of water and a bucket. When the target is hit, and often even when it's not, the bucket is dumped out, onto those below. 

The carnival is a lot of fun, and a great community building event for the school. For the next few weeks at least, I am a part of the community of this school.