School-related thoughts

I can hardly believe I've completed my first year of teaching and that nearly half of my summer vacation has flown by.

I still think of my students often, and I've looked for hours online trying to find new, exciting repertoire for next year. Before I left, I started reorganizing my choral library at school, and I expected that I would return sooner than later to work more on it. However, the 60-mile round trip commute to work and back is not incredibly appealing, and I've not yet returned to do the unpaid task of overhauling the library.

I wonder how my students are, but I haven't spent much time in the area near where I work, and I haven't run into anyone this summer. I visited my favorite store, Tarzhay, recently to update my wedding registry, half-expecting to see someone I recognized, as I had when I last went to the store. I found what I was looking for (Hooray! Added the bowls to our registry which match the pretty plates!) but didn't see anyone. I'm not sure if I was relieved or disappointed.

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On the last day of school, we teachers waved goodbye to the students as their busses drove out of the parking lot. One boy gestured and mouthed the words, "I love you, Miss LastName!" to me as his bus pulled away. Others waved back, excited that they were free at last. I honestly can't say who was more excited though- the teachers or the students. We cheered loudly too and waved heartily.

I initially learned that this was how we ended the last day when I read it on a handout distributed at a faculty meeting a few weeks earlier. When it was announced that all teachers wave goodbye, I giggled aloud, thinking it was incredibly cheesy. I have to admit, however, that I did enjoy it ... it was a pleasant closure to the school year. (Then of course, we teachers had a few extra days to continue to take apart our classrooms and get everything organized for next year.)

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My last concerts went well. Although the students did better in the rehearsals before the concerts, the response from administration and parents was overwhelmingly positive. The students presented me with a giant card, a bouquet, and a gift (a $25 giftcard to Cheesecake Factory and an electric pencil sharpener because the manual one in my classroom is terrible). While presenting these to me and showering me with compliments ("hadn't expected a first year teacher to achieve this level of success" and "she had big shoes to fill, and in a year, she's made the program even better; she's made it her own"), my principal clapped for me. The audience did too, and all of my 250+ students gave me a standing ovation! Humbling experience. I blew kisses back to my students standing in the audience from the stage. :)

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Next week, I will be "going back to school" for a long weekend professional workshop. I'm really excited about it for many reasons: I was one of two scholarship recipients, the clinicians are internationally renowned for their expertise, I will get reimbursed by my school district for the graduate credits, and I get to add 2 more states to the list of states I've visited (#29 & #30, even though one I'm adding because I'm flying into the airport in that state and traveling on land to the workshop location). I'm not as excited about having to write a 3-5 page paper on a specific technique I learn at the workshop and how I will apply it in my classroom, but that's required for the reimbursement. Who knows? Maybe I'll be able to get that published like the last time I wrote a paper like that. :)