June 7, 2010
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The Daily News1 Ah, the last week of school. Teacher's nightmare, and Teacher's dream.
2 We're all too busy even to blink, let alone grade papers, plan finals, return books, clear our walls, and all the rest of the nonsensical boushit we are expected to do.
3 For me, it's been a lark! Oh, I've worked my ass off the entire weekend, devoting over 35 hours to grading papers, but if I assigned them, then I should READ them.
4 What I got were reams of brilliance from some of the brightest classes I've ever had the pleasure of teaching.
5 Even though I posted this on Facebook earlier, it bears repeating. A girl in my 4th period English 1A class wrote this as a part of a poem:
I wish that I was seventy-nine
wrinkly, lazy, and barely alive.
I won't give a care to my hygiene
and grin with a mouthful of silver.
6 That is simply one example of the stuff that has been pouring in. I stand proud of my students this year. They delivered in the clutch. It has been hours and hours of reading reams and reams of paper, but it has also paid off.
7 It is the perfect ending to an almost perfect year.
8 I spent hours and hours poring over this stuff, and found amazing pieces of writing. They have clearly improved, beyond my wildest dreams.
9 I spent years at YB trying to let the English Department realize that I could take kids places they had never seen.
10 I was consistently blown off, to the point that I stopped going to meetings, which ultimately kept me from EVER teaching at a higher level.
11 Well...I don't mean to trumpet my accomplishments this year, but the papers that are so slow to grade are also some of the most brilliant writing I've witnessed in my entire career.
12 Dude.
13 They LISTENED. They learned. And it clearly wasn't just me. I delivered a lot of good knowledge, but it wasn't just me.
14 I will declare here and now that it isn't me; it's just some students whose parents placed education as a very high priority.
15 What this DID was give me a chance to design lessons the same way I used to design Shows.
16 The past two months, I feel I have been on my game, beyond belief. I'm a bit swamped with papers right now, but early on I knew that a good lesson plan, and an energetic teacher would be more important than some guy who drags his ass into class after three hours' sleep, pleading with the kids for mercy because he was up until 3 a.m. grading papers.
17 That dawg don't hunt.
18 So my focus was on putting the papers off, and planning each day so that I would have a fun lesson plan and LOTS of energy.
19 It paid off, but at SOME point those papers needed to be done.
20 For two straight days I plunged through, and have now finished all grading for almost four of five classes. To college people, that's like having only one final left.
21 To people in the working community, that's like having two days left until vacation, and all your work is in order.
22 So that's just about the ONLY news I have this great Monday. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, and I'm on the train. I still have NO idea how I did this, got fifteen college units, AND was able to visit my Mom last year. I haven't had a minute so scratch my head.
23 What makes it WAY better this year is the improvement of the students' writing. I have freshmen writing almost at the college level, many of them already there. I taught lots of writing skills this year, as well as vocabulary. These guys responded, and will definitely score high on any sort of standardized tests.
24 This isn't intended to be boastful, by the way, because THEY did it. They rose and learned beyond my expectations. As a teacher, it's a great feeling. Yes, I did work my butt off, but so did they. And there are dividends to hard work, and instilling a work ethic in others.
25 So congrats to my students. I don't know when I've ever been this proud.
26 That's about all the time I have right now. I still have one class to finish and another to do. Coffee break's over, back on my head.
27 Old joke.
28 I'll finish the DN's this week, and come back in August. I'll be missing y'all, but that's the tradition. This week I will have completed fourteen years of the Daily News. Shouldn't I get something for that? Like ice cream?
29 LOL. <I think this week it means "Lots o' Luck", or maybe even, "Good luck with THAT."
30 I'm ready for the BEACH.
31 See you all; have a great Monday.
32 Peace.
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