What's Happening

I feel like I have about a million irons in the fire right now, like my eyes are spinning in twenty different directions, and I just can't get a good grasp on any one thing.

Tomorrow's the last day of school, and then there are two days of in-service. I'm pretty much done--I have two exams tomorrow and will have them graded and in the system before dismissal. I'm almost done packing up my room--there are just a few things left to file away, but I'm almost at the point where feel like saying, "Screw it," and throwing everything that is not in a folder into the garbage can.

The drama kids have been very busy helping teachers move, pack, and paint. I had about twenty kids in my own room on Friday, every single one of them plugging away, like little worker ants. (This is why I'm so much farther ahead than I normally am at this time of year.) We've had several requests for help at the beginning of the next school year, so this fundraiser idea has definitely been a good one.

My grad class seems to bring one hit after another. We finish one project and immediately have to get to work on the next. We've been assigned to groups, and my group is not very ... group-y. We don't seem to be very good collaborators. Well, some people are better than others; I don't want to name any names, but three of the five have stayed after class two days in a row now to discuss our projects, even though we'd been at school for over twelve hours by then. And I do not use that "we" lightly--it's a hint as to why I haven't been able to watch tv for two days.

I wake up in the middle of the night thinking about those projects. Last night I woke up probably five times, and I would say, "Stop thinking about that!" One time I actually said, aloud, "WHAT DID I JUST SAY???" the same way I say it to my students who've been disruptive for the umpteenth time.

My tattoo seems to be healing nicely, except that there's still a bruise on one side of it. I don't know if that's normal. I haven't had time to examine it closely and freak out and take pictures and go on WebMD and diagnose myself. So that probably means it's cancer.

I finished a second market bag and took it to Kroger on Sunday. Those things hold a ton! I managed to stuff all my groceries in just two bags. I'm working on a third now. I'm thinking of getting together with the Ecology Club sponsor to do a joint fundraiser; she crochets, and there's one girl in the drama club that just started knitting, and several others that want me to teach them. We might be able to get a whole bunch ready to sell at the annual Randomville Town Party in September. It's worth a thought, anyway.

I've been watching Cranford on Masterpiece Theatre for three weeks. It's such a wonderful mini-series, with fully-realized characters, lots of drama, a dash of tragedy, a dollop of comedy, and some amazing performances from the whole cast. Little snapshots of people's lives, played out for my entertainment. It reminds me of the series Avonlea.

All my English students passed the Big Scary Test! Even the one that I was afraid wouldn't make it! (She scored proficient by ONE POINT. Whew!) Out of a class of 22, only 4 scored advanced, but to be quite frank, I wasn't really teaching advanced kids this year; they were solidly proficient, the very definition of average. So I'm totally satisfied with their scores.

Graduation was last Friday, and the ceremony only took an hour. That is short, particularly since we graduated over 200 students. The class president was a former speech student, and she really was the most professional speaker of anyone who gave a speech that night. Still, the valedictorian's speech was less than a minute long, so I think his was the best.

There was a very noticeable decrease in the number of graduates headed into the military.

To end on a high note: my hair looked especially awesome yesterday.