Thursday, June 26, 2008

Last Day

Today was the last day of classes for our students, last day to report for staff members, last day in the district for our superintendent's very capable and well-loved secretary.

Since Mrs. N., a lifelong learner of the best sort, is leaving to pursue her dream of becoming a nurse, our high school art teacher created a "Wild Thing" to which we all attached charms, symbols, and joke gifts.


One of the students in my current events class decided to recycle some old book socks and library cards. His colorful creation will grace one of our library walls next fall.



And a quiet little first grade girl celebrated a successful year by presenting each of her teachers with a rose.


Everyone is ready for a break, adults, children and teens. But we will miss each other and chatter excitedly when we meet in the mall or at the market. Because our connections are real and important.


How will you keep the learning alive over summer vacation?



4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm so happy that you're finally DONE! Not sure what's up with your crazy state, but most of us have been done for weeks and waiting for you to join us :-) New York definitely needs some talking to when making a school schedule - Wisconsin is a tid bit nicer and we have the Packers too! Have a blast at NECC and don't have too much fun without me! Who knows, maybe someday we'll get to have a TMG get-together sponsored by somebody.........we can only dream :-)

Anonymous said...

It sounds like your year ended fabulously! I also finished the year yesterday, though the students finished classes on the 6th and exams on the 20th, so I know (a little bit) how you feel :)

Duez said...

Your last question about "how will you keep learning alive over the summer" is what I posed to my AVID class. We will be together for four years and I didn't want to lose a connection to them in the summer months.

They decided to make a myspace page and link all of their names. I decided to create a blog - http://avidahs.blogspot.com to post information for them to consider (like what they can do over the summer to prepare for college).

Next year I am also going to create a World History blog where we look at current events and history. I think blogging is a great way to keep learning going. It can be teacher led, or student led (just by giving permissions to some students to be able to post items).

I wonder - what is the first day of school for you next year? This is quite a long way into summer for us. We were done a month ago.

diane said...

Kate, Tracy, 40,

Setting off to NECC right after classes finished meant I had a fabulous experience...but no down time.

Home on July 3, then lots of family Fourth of July activities.

After a short business trip to NJ, I hope to settle in, shovel out some of the clutter I've accumulated throughout the school year (in my home and in my brain), and start to make some sense out of all that's happened in the past few weeks.

I know I've changed, just need to make sure it's as positive as possible!