The End of the Year

My classroom is almost packed up, the student population is dwindling and my hair is starting to frizz. That must mean only one thing: the school is year is nearly over.  The end of the school is a confusing time to plan for. Most years, my attempts to keep the students engaged are thwarted by both last minute and planned events and assemblies.  For example, yesterday a colleague knocked on my door to inform me that a county judge would be by to talk to the students with less than a half hour notice. Granted, the students benefited from interacting with the judge and learned a tremendous amount about the legal system, but it pushed back the oral presentations that were scheduled for that day.

Today, my academic team wrapped up the year by hosting an awards ceremony and pizza party.  It's always nice to celebrate the students' accomplishments and they enjoy the recognition.  Two of my students were informed by the vice-principal  that they had the highest overall reading gains in the entire eighth grade.  Apparently there was a reading contest this year and this accomplishment was rewarded with a television set.  Heck, if I had known about the contest, I would have sat through the Scholastic Reading Inventory three times this year.  The ceremony ended with a video that the students created that lampooned their teachers (multiple students on camera trying to imitate their best New England accent) as well as teacher awards.  The students named me Teacher Who Taught Us the Most.  I couldn't be more honored.

It will be interesting to find out what happens over the next two days.  After this week, I have two days of professional development and then I am out for the summer.  For those of you already on break, I hope you're enjoying every minute.  For those of you with a few more weeks left, stay cool.