the many faces of a teacher at the end of the year

So school is officially over.  I spent 11 hours grading final exams and last minute assignments and entering grades and thought for a minute or two that I was going to go crazy.  As I sank deeper and deeper into the ever collapsing couch, I wasn't too sure I was going to make it.  I have been waking up since Friday with nightmares about this year's students and the future of our country!  It has been a rough year.

About 2pm I had to break out the coffee and cookies.  They perked me up and I finished grading around 5:30pm.  The future started to look a little brighter.  I sent out the final email of the year letting students and parents know that everything was finished.  Almost immediately I got a reply from a parent thanking me for being an 'Awesome teacher'.  Wow, did that make my day.  Eventhough her daughter didn't get an A in my class, she said her daughter always knew where she stood grade wise and she appreciated that I kept her informed with my weekly emails and daily text reminders about homework.  Sometimes I wondered if anyone actually read those.

This morning I heard from a couple more parents on the other side of the coin.  One said her son said the final was so easy he had no idea how he failed. I wrote her back explaining every point he missed and told her I hoped it helped with her conversation with him.  Another said she noticed her son had 7 missing assignments and was that a mistake.  He missed my class about 20 times for baseball.  Having a 7th period class and playing a sport is really hard and it takes extra dedication to complete both well, but some of those assignments had been missing for 2 months.

 This is the face you make as you get in your car to drive away after you've spent 4 hours 'cleaning' your room.  It was more like stuff everything from the desk and counters into the cabinets, but hey, that's how I clean.  It's not like anyone is going to come look in the cabinets this summer and I'm moving back into the same room next year.  At least I hope they clean off the counters this summer to make all of my dash and stash worth my time.  I have grand plans to go in a couple times over the summer to actually sort through the cabinets and throw stuff away, but I filled the garbage cans today which means I had to be done.  That's the rule you know.

Now, to start MY vacation.  There is so much that needs to be thrown out or donated around here and I'm not exactly sure where to start.  I guess anyplace is a good start and a little bit every day is better than nothing at all.  I hope to fill the garbage cans every week and take a load to the thrift store once a week too.  Wish me luck!