And now, the end is near...

(this was cross-posted to my other blog, located here.)

...and so we face, the final Friday. The grades were due in yesterday, so the DOE effectively left us with a day of freedom, complete and absolute, where there was Nothing You Absolutely Had To Do.

What did we do instead?

Some of us gave questionnaires to the students in our classes. Others threw pizza parties, complete with movies (thank heaven for Blockbuster Video and the Queens Public Library). Donuts abounded. Soda too. Teachers' faces - mine included - are beginning to unclench, finally.

Looking back on the semester and the year as a whole, I think that overall, this was a successful year. A lot of kids worked, grew, were pushed to their limits and prevailed. Some didn't, sometimes as a result of personal problems outside of school, other times because of issues with the class or the school, and still others faced some challenging learning problems. Some came back from such challenges and made it through.

What comes next?

I asked for 10th-grade again for next year and got it. The freshman class we got in this past year appears to be exceptional, and I am excited about working with them in September. Hopefully, I won't let them down.

I am disappointed about the handling of summer school situation, but shit happens and you have to move on. So I will be free this summer, while Ting and Michael spend the entirety of July in St. Mary's Hospital. Lotsa free time for me, there...but I am not sure I am looking forward to it. I want to work, to teach, to grow and find new ways of thinking about curriculum and bring it to a group of kids who I might be able to inspire to learn. Math is a beautiful thing, if taught correctly. My goal is to do that, and to be the best at that in my school.

Next week brings us the Awards Ceremonies, certificates of achievement we hand out to deserving 10th-graders, then my Mentee's oral defense -- we are a portfolio-based school -- followed by the Regents (ugh). Then a going away party, and we are done.

It is going to be over suddenly, and I find the summer stretched out in front of me with no thesis to write and no mother to look out for and visit. Right now, it seems like a vast void to fill. I need to find projects to keep me busy.

I will miss a lot of my kids who are moving on to 11th grade, many of whom I have had since they first came to this school, others I met only this year and have come to love. I wish them well, and I look forward to the next batch of kids.