May 22, 2013
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Happy Birthday K.T.!!!!!
The Daily News
1 Happy Birthday to my beautiful daughter Caitlin!
2 For your birthday I bought you both a Sharks win, and a Giants’ win, with a walk-off by Pablo.
3 I have connections.
4 I also got myself a present.
5 Summertime!!!
6 Hope you have a GREAT birthday week.
7 Are you having fun?
8 If not, then it’s time you started!
9 I love you K.T.!
10 Moving on, Part One: I wrote this stuff yesterday afternoon. I was off work at 12:50, sat down and wrote the following stuff.
11 I just got home.
12 Same as the day before yesterday.
13 I gave finals yesterday.
14 A lot of it was sort of eerie.
15 I got through my first class famously.
16 Great classes, lot of good students, and wonderful beyond words.
17 One girl brought me a chocolate cake.
18 We’re really not supposed to accept gifts, but come on.
19 A chocolate cake.
20 I thought it was sweet.
21 The thought dude.
22 I haven’t eaten the cake.
23 This kid had nothing to gain by giving that to me.
24 She is just one of those awesome students that we get, and quite often.
25 She knew that she had already scored an A+ in my class. She has done nothing but quality work in my class all year.
26 So it clearly wasn’t a bribe.
27 So fun.
28 That group left, and their finals were all awesome. GREAT class. I graded them immediately. Some awesome pieces of writing.
29 After a brief lunch, my second class of the day came in. It was my fifth-period class, filled with a lot of sweet, yet emotional students.
30 The day before yesterday they were pretty loud and obnoxious.
31 I let it roll. End of the year excitement and all.
32 Yesterday they came in like they were coming before a firing squad.
33 A lot of them looked pretty worried because they didn’t listen to a thing I said about the final.
34 I calmed them down pretty quickly and they got down to business.
35 Midway into the test, I had finished grading my other class’s papers and decided to begin the business of closing things down.
36 I organized my room and kept made myriad trips to the recycling containers.
37 After a while the students noticed that the room was shutting down.
38 There came a certain sadness. This was a fun group with lots of entertaining kids.
39 You could sense the sadness though.
40 They have been together since August of last year. That’s a long time. Friendships were made. The class had a pretty nice bond.
41 At one point, the room started to look empty.
42 You could feel the sadness. It was almost palpable.
43 Even though they were predominantly freshmen, all the fun times and memories seemed to be rushing out the door.
44 I thought to myself, “Too soon?”
45 At the end of the period, a few students asked if they could take a picture with me.
46 At first I refused, stating that “Every time someone takes a picture of me, I’m in transition from human being to horse!”
47 They loosened up.
48 I said, “Just a sec.”
49 And then I blasted Jack Johnson’s Upside Down from Curious George, the anthem of my classroom. I played it all year when they would be doing desk work, or group work.
50 After the last kid left the room, I looked out. It was empty, and Johnson’s final lyrics were, “Please don’t go away…”
51 Moments.
52 That’s why I love the job.
53 AnywayZ…
54 I gottago.
55 Today is my Disney class, and then I’m out at 10:15. Beach?
56 It has its perks.
57 Reflection.
58 Have a GREAT day. And Happy Birthday K.T.!!!
59 See you again.
60 Peace.
~H~
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