Today is officially the first day of my summer break. Friday was the last day for the children. We had our awards assembly, then a short party afterward before we dismissed at 11:00. At the awards assembly I said that I have two daughters at home, but at school it felt like I had nine. I had to take several very long pauses in order to keep the tears from flowing freely. I really loved this class. Funny though, some of the parents told me that the students thought I couldn't think of anything nice to say, which was why I was taking so long to speak. Kids.
I got rave reviews from my principal on my end of the year report card comments. I am thoughtful and diplomatic, I was told. There were a couple of parents who I'd really like to tell them a thing or two about their precious children.
Yesterday was the teacher workday, as prescribed by our contract. What's not prescribed by my contract is how many days I'll spend this summer putting together lessons for next year. So yesterday I organized my room and turned in grade sheets and my classroom inventory list. I usually have kids do my inventory the week before school is out. There is lots to do, but some kids need the diversion.
The kids had a terrific last week, too. In what turned out to be a truly authentic task, I told them that I had to update my classroom web site and that they were going to do all the work for me. They broke up in to teams, and each team took a different subject or classroom activity. Some worked on disciplines like math or science, while others wrote about our field trips or the fourth grade musical. They also looked over the CDs I had and chose photos to go along with their writing. What made it extra special is that I said I would give them credit for writing. So on the bottom of each page, I'll write the first names and last initials of the students who wrote that particular page. They thought that was great.
Which leads me to my final bit here. This summer I am going to make an attempt at putting together some project-based learning activities for next year's class. I'd like to integrate the curriculum, but it's going to be a challenge in a number of ways. First, my math is set in stone. We use the U of Chicago Everyday Math program. The best I can do is work in the quarterly skills into whatever project we might do, if that is even possible or practical. Second, my science and social studies curricula don't fit together well at all. Science comes in kits from our district, and while I can fit water and ancient history together in first quarter, after that, it gets tricky. Finally, if I try to work reading chapter books in to my plan, I am again tied in only to those literature sets that the district has on hand. I am familiar with the book sets the district has on hand, and it is not a pretty picture.
Finally, I guess I forgot, I am going to the dojo tonight for the first time in at least two weeks. The end of the school year always does this to me. I am looking forward to practice, but worried that I can keep up. My lovely wife and I worked in our front garden on Sunday, and my hamstrings are still very sore.
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