Hi Ho Hi Ho, It’s off to Work I Go

My break is over…dammit.

It's back to work for me tomorrow. The one saving grace about that is I'll have more material to write about! I've been a little short on topics as of late. Joe C. ought to help me out there!

I've also been distracted by my newly adopted husky named Mya. She is WAY more fun than bitching about my job.

I'm entering my final five weeks of school. The final push before summer! I can hear The Doors singing now:

This is the end

Beautiful friend…

The end

Somehow, I don't think Jim Morrison was singing about the end of the school year for one burned out fourth grade teacher, but I'm willing to pretend he was. (Wouldn't that be a kick a$$ song if he was?!)

Testing is over, and frankly (I never thought I'd say this) but I am jealous of you Texas teachers out there. Many of you have written that your students have already gotten their test results.

No Fair!

We slow pokes in California will not know how our kids did until they are someone else's kids. We get our results back in July or August, looong after they will have any impact on the students who took "The Test." We talk up "The Test" with the kids, encourage them, set goals for language arts and math scores, discuss how they previously did, impart wisdom about what "band" they fall into and how far they are from moving up to the next one, etc, etc, etc…

But by the time the kids get to see their results, they've long forgotten the contents of "The Test." We wouldn't give them a spelling test, tell them how they did 4 months later, and then expect them to use that outdated information to do better the next time they take a spelling test in eight months. And isn't state testing supposed to be so much more important than a spelling test?

Oh well. What do I know? I just work here.

Another unintended consequence of testing being finished is that students begin asking me why we're learning things. All year long we tell them that these skills we're doing will be on "The Test," and now that "The Test" is over, they do not see why we are continuing to learn new things. I lie and tell them the skills will be on "The Test" next year.

I miss the days … blah blah blah

As I approach the end of the year, Open House looms large. Time to start dusting off all that stuff I've been saving all year and hanging it up. I have no idea how I am going to do that because the after school daycare program is scheduled to be in my classroom all month after school. This should be interesting. Hey! Maybe I can hang it on them and make it more of a "Living Exhibit."

We also have the annual softball game, sixth graders versus the staff. With how sassy our sixth graders have been, I wouldn't be surprised to see a few well-placed line drives headed towards some of them. Many more teachers have been working out at the batting cages this year…huuummmmm.

There's also the talent show. I've still got nothing for that one…

And then the end of the year! I'm always a bit nostalgic by the last day. I think back on all the good times I've had with the kids and feel I'm gonna really miss them…

And then I get over it.