I'm SO glad that this week is finally over! The last week of school is always crazy with administrator demands, guidance concerns, insane parents, and hyperactive kids. The mounds of paperwork alone are overwhelming! On Thursday I had a pizza party for my students, which was a fun way to end the year. On the whole for the year, I had 24 students graduate from my alternative program, which is awesome! Last year I had 13, so that's a big increase. Overall, my alternative program increased the Shelbyville High School graduation rate about 10% for the 07-08 school year... which as you all know, in this day and age of accountability and meeting AYP is huge! On Tuesday I start teaching summer school, which lasts until June 20th. In all honesty, I usually complain about doing summer school, but it's not too bad. I've done it every year since I've been teaching, and since the competition for who gets offered the summer school positions is high, I guess I should be a little more grateful. It's only 4 hours a day, but I get paid time and a half, so it works out in my favor! Plus, I'm in the building all summer long to meet with the guidance department, to enroll new students, and to meet with administrators anyway. I keep telling Mr. Zobel that they should give me administrator pay since I work administrator hours.... but he doesn't think that's too funny (then again, he does have a pretty dry sense of humor!).
Friday night we went to Southwestern's graduation. For some reason, it was really nostalgic for me this time. I suppose it was because I knew so many of the kids... either because they were siblings of people I went to school with or through Chris. I guess it just seems weird that we've been out of school 8 years. 8 years seems like a long time but it doesn't really feel like it was that long ago... it's a bit of a conundrum, I suppose.
Saturday was Shelbyville's graduation, which was also fun in a way. It was a rewarding feeling to watch so many of my students get their diplomas... especially since I know not many of them would have been able to graduate had they not entered my alternative program.
Today I'm doing glorious nothing... I'm not doing laundry, or cleaning, or doing yard work... just nothing. Honestly, I can't remember the last time I didn't have a million things to do, so this will be a nice break.
Tomorrow is baseball sectionals. I can't even begin to describe how happy I will be for baseball season to be over. I know Chris loves it, but it's a hard experience to be the coach's wife during baseball season; he'll probably be mad at me for saying that :). He starts with tennis in a few weeks, but that's only a couple days a week... and I like tennis better than baseball anyway. The season is less demanding and the matches are a lot more fun to watch. Plus, the team is smaller so I get to know the kids more. It's nice to spend even a few minutes a week interacting with nice normal students... when all you deal with on a daily basis are alternative students with the attached drama, it's easy to forget what the traditional high school experience can be like. Sometimes it's nice to have a little reminder! This summer I'm also going to get Chris to teach me some tennis skills... last year we did a little, but maybe this year we can do more. Although, it is a little intimidating to learn from him... when he played in high school he was state-ranked! I guess that's what makes him a great coach though!!!
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