summertime, summertime, sum sum summertime

**Spoiler Alert** Overt sentimental nostalgia to follow, this is a very non-cara type of post as I reflect on my first year as a teacher, I promise I have not turned into a sap and I will return to my normal witty sarcastic self in a few days- I just have to make it through graduation first!

All of the posters and props from student presentations which turned my room into one giant refrigerator door, have been taken off the walls and stored because I, the proud teacher, can't quite bear to part with them yet; the textbooks are stacked against the back wall, eagerly awaiting the new group of students who will turn those pages; the last essays have been graded and the last exams have been taken. Today was my last day of school with my students. When the bell rang at 1:00 today, all of my babies (400 of them) left and by 1:30 our school building was eerily quiet and empty. I can't believe the school year is over; I'm not sure what to do with myself now. I am ready for a break and am excited to have time to relax and prepare for next year. But at the same time, I'm sad not to get to see my kids for two months, not to hear my name repeated at high volumes by multiple people at the same time, not to greet them in the mornings and hear about their successes and defeats on the sports field, not to laugh with them or listen to them or talk with them or teach them. I have had such an incredible year and my students have helped me every step of the way. My sweet freshmen are freshmen no longer and my crazy seniors will graduate on Monday.

I am so blessed to get to go to work everyday in a school in which I believe and to teach the amazing students that we have. I'm already looking forward to next year's adventure!

How many chances?

Can I please go on record as saying that I am so ready for Spring? I have never been so excited about daylight savings time as I am for this weekend and I am quite literally counting the days until Spring Break when I can spend lots of time outside in the warm sun (I hope!)

In other news, I am facing a sort of pedagogical crisis. I have been wondering lately, how many chances is too many? Is offering the chance to re-do something or giving an alternate assignment always in the best interest of the student? Is it ever in the best interest of the student? And if the second chance doesn't help should there be third and fourth chances? Does one student deserve more chances than another student? Will offering multiple chances to re-do and re-learn set the students up for failure in college or out in the working world?

I have seriously been keeping myself up at night wondering and worrying about these questions. My school uses a mastery learning grading scale which in essence means that any score below 80% is a failing grade because a student has not mastered the material if they know less than 80% of it. If a student fails a test or is failing a class, he or she is required to attend Academic Assistance after school to be re-taught the material. On Fridays, we have a re-testing period when students who have attended Academic Assistance may re-take the test they failed the first time. I am completely on board with this procedure, as I am aware that not all students "get it" the first time around. My problem arises when students don't study the first time because, they "can always take the re-test." And then there are those who just don't care until they may get thrown off their sports team or they are told they will have to re-visit English I in summer school. When a student wants to re-do material from 1st semester, is it just too late?

When do the chances run out? and Is it Spring Break yet?

snow...

it is snowing on the other side of my window right now...i have decided that i like snow the best when it is in the air, silently falling. in my old age, i have come to treasure small moments of silence and snow is blissfully noiseless. so, i really like watching snowflakes drift down to form a white blanket on the ground. it is this blanket of snow that i take issue with. once snow covers the ground, my opinion of the dangerous, slippery, frozen precipitation abruptly changes from awestruck wonder to abhorrence. snow traps me indoors rendering me a virtual shut-in, stealing my freedom to travel from my house. i am not equipped to drive in the dangerous conditions that snow creates, likewise walking in snow can prove to be just as hazardous not to mention the below freezing temperatures necessary for snow.

so, it's snowing outside- i think i'm going to go watch it fall and pray it melts as soon as it hits the ground!

Is it Spring time yet?

felicidades!

Hola! It has been quite an end to 2007 and beginning to 2008 for me. I returned yesterday from a week in Cuba. It was an amazing experience, and Cuba is definitely a place I hope to return to again and again. The people I met were absolutely incredible and they each have a wonderful story to tell. I have pictures to share and wonderings to float out into cyberspace, but it is late and I have to join the real world tomorrow at school. So for know I will leave you with a list of things I came home with:
1. a desire to know more Spanish than I do presently; I got better towards the end of the week after being immersed, so I guess I did learn something in school!
2. a need to learn more about Cuban history and the Revolucion- they are celebrating 49 years which means next year will be huge.
3. a resolution to learn more about my own country's foreign policy as it pertains to Cuba including proposed plans and bills and the voting records on these propositions
4. a feeling of connectedness with my new amigos that we do walk together on the roads built where there were none (and we are definitely dancing to Bon Jovi as we walk!)

feeling thankful...

How does time slip by so quickly? Today is one of my favorite days of the year and as I'm sitting in my comfy chair with my sweet little puppy, watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, waiting to go pick my sister up from the airport, I am thinking of all the multitudes of things in my life that I have to be thankful for. Life may not have turned out how I planned, but how could I have planned for many of the wonderful things I've done and seen?

I am thankful for my job- at the most wonderful school I have ever been in. My colleagues are all so dedicated to helping our students realize their academic potential and to succeed both in school and in life. My students are hilarious and I could not have asked for a better group to put up with a first year teacher. I forgot to blog about the Haloween dance so I'll share a picture of Valerie and I in our "Charter's Angels" costumes. The other teachers thought it was hilarious, the kids didn't get it!

I am also so incredibly thankful for the gift of friendship. We had our annual girls weekend in Atlanta this past weekend. While we were missing one, it was a wonderful weekend full of amazing food (seasons 52 is a new favorite restaurant), shopping, happy hours, laughter, and more memories than we can count. I don't deserve friends like the four of you- thank you.

Jennie and I figured out we have been friends for 25 years- how cool is that!

Gayle and Jennie enjoying the fun atmosphere and the yummy sangria at Eclipse di Luna

picture of the year!

I was cleaning pictures off my camera tonight and found pictures from Lake Weekend 2007. What a fun weekend! We had perfect lake weather and got to play in the water and take a boat ride. I skied for the first time in a few years and my body definitely thanked me for it the entire next week. While I still maintain that Lizzie and I would have fared much better in the cornhole tourney if the boards had been lined up correctly, the highlight of the weekend may have been watching the boys "fish" off the dock. This picture explains why this was so amusing for the spectators.

ah, yes... the old, hit the fish with a beer bottle method! Surprisingly, Lindsay did not catch dinner that night!

Thanks again to Gayle and the Reicherts for letting us invade their great new lake house to renew our lake weekend tradition. I can't wait till our girls weekend in Atlanta in a few weeks- get ready Bob, we're all going bottomless!

oh my...

It has been a crazy few weeks! I cannot believe the first nine weeks of school has come and gone. Life has been busy, filled with trying to be the best teacher possible and trying to maintain some form of a social life at the same time. At the end of September, I had the opportunity to visit some old friends in Charleston. It was a great weekend to rest, relax, laugh, and realize just how fast time passes! I do miss living in a place that has that distinctive, soul-healing scent of salty air and pluff mud. Too bad Greenville is not a coastal city!

After my restful weekend, I packed not quite enough warm clothes, my sleeping bag, and enough patience I could possibly muster and headed off to Camp Greenville with 96 high school freshmen. Yes, it is quite possible that I have lost my ever loving mind. Yes again, it was actually somewhat fun despite the lack of sleep and whiny students. I loved watching them in their small groups working together, building friendships, and making memories. Here are a few pictures.