Shout Outs

It is a tradition on our campus to give shout outs to each other at our last meeting.  This is such a great way to end the year, especially if the year has been stressful.  I didn't want to take over the entire meeting today, but I have lots of shout outs I want to share for people on both our campuses.

Sean Blesh - I know I have referenced you a lot on this blog, but it is my last chance.  Thanks for coming in and making us all better teachers.


Diane Scro - There is no way to adequately say what you have meant to me a a friend and a colleague and a mentor.  You took us from pencils to clouds in a very short time.

Elizabeth Walters - You are my friend, my shoulder, and my source of entertainment, not to mention the person who turns our walls into a gallery.  What you are able to get out of our kids is nothing short of amazing.

Katherine Barton - My mom is still talking about how great the strings group was and how adorable you are.  Thanks for making a hard thing, like playing the violin, such a fun experience for our kids.

Blue Pod (and Meagan Stone - we really need a fifth room) -  You have kept me sane, let me vent, given support (and when it was needed, truth).  We are the best pod, no matter what those girls in the gallery think.

Willa Bea Coates - You put up with a lot from all of us.  Thanks for always helping.

Cathy Cole - Wow, you make us look good.  You are always thinking and coming up with new ways to help.  The fact that you handle open house is reason enough for a shout out because people say some very dumb things. 

LEAP department (This includes you, Marion) - Some of our kids would not believe they were capable if it weren't for you ladies.  Thanks for helping our kids discover what they are good at and being a safe place for them.  Thanks for also giving them a dose of truth when they need it.

Vivian Edwards and Beth German - Thanks for making sure we get paid, even when it means you have to do work when everyone else is one break.

Mandy Gill - You are unflappable.  I don't know how you finished the year after the brick was dropped on your head.  You are THE most supportive administrator I have ever worked for.

Melissa Hendges and Pat Trussell - I could not identify all the elementary kids without your help.  You help us reach the goal of 100% coverage.

Ben Inman - Sometimes, I think you and I are the only sane ones (and I'm not always sure about me).

Laura Jacobs, Daniel Servi, and Jonah Bookman - You guys fell in and immediately became part of the family.  It's like your were always here.

Amanda McLain, Ellen Kaehler, and Kirsten Wray - We don't see you very often, but we are amazed by what you do.

Sharon Martin and Megan Yabani- Thanks for making sure I get pictures from your side of the world.  Third grade and first grade always one of the best and first to reach full coverage.

David and Tonya Taylor - I know it wasn't your idea, but thank you for coming back to America.  I missed you, and you are such amazing mentors for the girls basketball team.

Kathie Thompson - How you keep all the plates spinning, I will never know.  In addition to everything you do at GRACE, you plan a camp for foster kids (and that takes all year). 

Laura Warmke - Your leadership with tech and the depth of thought you put into EVERYTHING is astounding.  You made the library cool.  Your creativity is off the charts.

Isaiah Whelpley - You are intentional about everything you do.  You are even intentional about making sure you are intentional.

Güten Pränken

Güten Pränken is the term coined by Jim Halpert in the series finale of The Office to describe the good pranks that he was going to play on Dwight as his bestest mench.  I am extending the definition to any prank played with joy on someone you love to show your affection.  Today, we played such a prank on our beloved IT director, Sean, who is leaving for another field at the end of the week.

The idea of this prank started in a Latin class five years ago.  At that time, Sean's room was our computer lab (because we had not yet instituted our one to one MacBook program).  The Latin teacher and a small group of students decided it would be really fun to put so many balloons in the lab that he would have to wade through them to get to his desk.  They came to me about the math.  After some initial calculations, we realized we could not afford this prank.  It was too many balloons.

Our school size has inflated since then.  Pun intended.  We had to do some restructuring of our space.  Since the kids all now have laptops, there was no longer a need for a computer lab, and he was moved into a much smaller space.  That caused the Latin teacher and I to re-address the issue of "ballooning" him.  When he announced that this would be his last year, we knew we had to do it.

We learned that a lot of collaboration is required to pull of a prank of this magnitude.  First, his office is locked by a combination, so we enlisted the help of the maintenance team for access as well as measurements.  Second, we are talking about hundreds of balloons.  We pulled in quite a few friends for balloon donations (we think we ended up with about 700).  Timing matters too.  You definitely don't want to take any chances with a guy who can take over your computer while you still need your computer.  We finally had decided on a day and had drafted some helpers when Sean detached a tendon and needed surgery the very next day.  To decide on another good day, we had to let Sean's tech partner, Dana, in on it.  This only seemed fair since this is also his room.  He was on board and gave us some days to NOT do it.

It was finally decided that the week after graduation would be best.  It's a good thing because we learned just how long it would take to blow up this many balloons.  We spent all day blowing them up, both with the lungs of about eight people and with an air compressor provided by our maintenance director.  Early on, we had some difficulty with the compressor, and Sean walked in while we were working on it.  I was sure our cover had been blown, but he didn't seem to even notice the pile of inflated balloons behind my desk.  We concocted a cover story just in case he came back because it became clear that it would soon be impossible to hide.  By 2:45, we had inflated every balloon we had, and our fingers were deformed from tying them. At that point some students came by to help, and we waited for Sean to leave the building.

When he left, we started toting all these balloons from my room down to his, 300 feet away.  Our administrators even helped as we stuffed them in his room.  It takes a while, starting at the back of the room and piling hundreds of balloons to the height you want.  Then, our Latin teacher had to swim out.

At the time of this writing, we have just finished.  Sean will not see it until tomorrow, and I will go to sleep with a smile.  During the entire day, we giggled at each other because we were certain he had no idea what was happening.  We were so excited about the fact that we were finally pulling this off after so many years.  We laughed the maniacal "Mwahaha" laugh.  It is a great way to wrap up a year because it was fun as a team and done with love - Güten Pränken.

Photo taken by Alex Dolwick (who also helped).

EdCamp

Before last year, I had never heard of an EdCamp.  Now, I can't seem to stop hearing about them.

We are preparing for the second annual EdCamp at GRACE because last year's was awesome.  Yesterday, I was listening to the Talks With Teachers podcast, and one of the guests answers was that all teachers should try EdCamps.  Today, I saw a tweet about EdCamps.  Here's the gist.

An EdCamp is a way of having professional development at your school for your teachers by your teachers for free.  Each teacher signs up to teach for 30 minutes on a topic they are interested in.  Someone makes a schedule, and then teachers choose which sessions they will attend.  At the end of the day, we have a big group meeting to reflect a little on what we learned.  Because the presentations are being done by your colleagues, you know you will have good speakers (not always the case with purchased professional development speakers).   Because the speaker has chosen their own topic, you know it is something that is happening in your school (or at least that this teacher wants to happen or hopes to do).  It also means you won't be afraid to speak up or ask them questions, like you might be with a presenter who is a stranger.  These are a few shots from our EdCamp last year.  I apologize for the photo quality.  They were taken by someone else with their phone so that we could tweet them immediately.  She was also trying not to be intrusive, so she took them standing at the door.

Last year, I did a presentation on Animoto, but I attended three awesome presentations on: Virtual Field Trips with Google Maps, Blogging, and a Forum on 20% time passion projects.  This year, I will be presenting on Blogging myself, and I will team present with my friend on our two epic failures with Challenge Based Learning.  One of the things I love most about this is that we were encouraged to share our failures.  The two I believe I will attend this year are about Flipping the Classroom Effectively and Using Quizlet as a Teaching Tool.  I am very excited about both of these.  I got to choose them from a list that had about six choices in each slot.  My only regret about this year is that since I am presenting at two, I only get to attend two. 

This is worth doing at your school.  Even if you start small with only a few of your braver teachers, you should do it.   Give people at least a few to choose from in each session because they will buy in more to a topic they have chosen.  Some teachers think they have nothing to share, but this is never true.  We have to share the good things that are happening in our classrooms.  It is the way we grow and the way we encourage each other.  One of my favorite ones from last year was a forum.  The presenter didn't have to prepare that much.  She just had to say, "Let's talk about this thing I am passionately interested in trying."  We all benefited from it.

Seriously, do this at your school.

Going Forward

No matter how nice teachers are to the senior class, they leave every year.  Well, of course they do.  This is what is supposed to happen.  The GRACE graduation is this Friday, and it always brings with it a sense of excitement, nostalgia, and nervousness.  If that is what I am experiencing as a teacher, imagine what it must be like for the graduates.

Excitement is always part of these last weeks of school.  After all, these are people we have watched grow.  I personally start teaching them in 8th grade, but our chorus and band teachers have had some of them since 3rd or 4th grade.  To watch kids turn from snotty nosed 3rd graders or hormonal middle schoolers in to adults is one of the best things about teaching in a school like this.  (Some day I should do a post about writing recommendation letters because it allows the same kind of feelings.)  When I taught in public school, I had kids for one year and sometimes never saw them again.  I only truly got to keep longer relationships with a few.  At GRACE, there are kids that I have taught in 8th grade science, 10th grade chemistry, and 11th or 12th grade if they took physics.  Some I have had on my yearbook staff for four years.  I hope to watch my 8th grade "knitting" club grow and mature over the years as well.  Sending them out to see what God does with them always brings a sense of excitement.

According to dictionary.com, nostalgia is a noun meaning "a wistful desire to return in thought or in fact to a former time in one's life, to one's home or homeland, or to one's family and friends; a sentimental yearning for the happiness of a former place or time."  Nostalgia seems to be wired into the human brain.  Whether it is 13 years of schooling or a week of camp, there is something about revisiting memories that makes us happy and sad at the same time. 

Photographs have always been a great way of preserving memories (which is why yearbooks are so important), but the proliferation of cameras on phones have made it even easier to capture lots of moments very quickly.  Our staff and students robe up together before the graduation ceremony, and it is always really funny to watch people taking selfies with their teachers.  It also shows the relationship that our teachers and students have.  The fact that they WANT to have selfies with their teachers is pretty awesome.  It is also funny to watch students help their teachers get ready.  They make sure our hair is okay and straighten or hoods because no one ever knows the right way to hang those things.  We are all fully aware that these are some of our last real moments with each other (even though our students are good about coming back to visit), so we try to make the most of it.

One of the most challenging things about graduation is that there is also some fear.  Maybe fear isn't the right word, but it does make us nervous to know that they are going out into a world that is far different from the one they are leaving.  We won't be there to protect them from some of their choices or comfort them when they have to suffer the consequences of those choices.  Most of them are going into a world that is hostile to the faith we have tried our best to nurture in them.  The most important thing we can do is pray for them, so we always have a tradition of circling up for a great last time of prayer with them.  This picture doesn't do it justice, but it is what I have.  Teachers and students all pray together, and some pray aloud. Teacher pray for students, and students pray for each other.  We all express our gratitude to God for the time He has allowed us to spend together for the months and years we have had.  This happens just before we line up to march down the aisle.  It is just us and them.  Their parents, grandparents, siblings, and friends can have them in a minute; but for one last moment, they are ours as we give their futures to God.  

Yearbook Dedication Day - Post 2

As I have mentioned in previous posts, this year marks my 10th year doing the yearbook at GRACE.  We have grown from an 88 page book that was passed out in classrooms with dedication read in a faculty meeting to a 144 page book with a fine arts pep rally style event in which the dedication is revealed in front of our entire student body, faculty, and staff.

Order forms kept arriving right up to the last minute, and some were sold AS we were distributing books.  I survived this one, but it takes a team of people so I can end up.  A sub is assigned to my classroom for all of the day's class time.  There is no way everything could get done if I also had to be in class (although I used to do it that way).  The kids are in final exam review time, so I feel okay leaving them with their study guides and quizlets and notes for the day.

I start about 6:30 moving tables into "the cage" in our cafeteria.  The yearbooks have been sorted during the week into boxes for each grade, so it makes the set up a little faster.  This year, we had an NHS induction in the cafeteria at 7:15, so I stayed for that.  Then I had door duty (which is my favorite, so I didn't want to miss it).  At 8ish, I finished setting up all the middle and high school books and then ran down to our other campus to pick up any last orders from there.  Our two wonderful receptionists then take over by only e-mailing me the name and grade of anyone else who brings in an order (no need for the check at that moment - just get the book in the box).

Loading the boxes of books for the other campus was much easier this year because I traded cars with my mom the night before.  I don't know why it took me 7 years to realize that this would be easier with her SUV than my Buick, but it did.  Lifting the books off of the science department cart into the back of an SUV makes so much more sense the trying to slide them across the back seat of my car.  Getting them out of the SUV is INFINITELY easier than getting them out of the back seat of my car.

While I am doing all of this, my wonderful friend and technology genius, Diane Scro (who I may have mentioned a few other times) is setting up the gym with everything we need for the pep rally.  At one time, this consisted of one microphone and a speaker.  Now, it is a whole production with a theater backdrop, risers for the chorus, seats for the band, and a piano.

About 12:30, we start shipping the kids from the upper school campus to the gym.  We no longer fit in the gym, so it has been suggested that we split this into two events.  I can't do it because I feel that yearbook is a unifying force for our school.  It is one of the things that makes us "one school on two campuses" rather than two separate entities.  However, we do end up with about 800 people in our gym.

The pep rally involves performances and the announcement of awards, but it culminates with the presentation of the dedication.  This year, we finally dedicated it to someone I have been wanting to honor for a long time.  In a nearly unanimous decision, we decided to honor Zane Smitley, an incredible teacher and one of my best friends.  I can't believe we managed to keep it a secret.  Between kids on the staff knowing all year, his wife and children knowing since June, and him being right across the hall from me, it is kind of a miracle.  He even came into the lounge while I was sorting them and asked if he could look at one.  I thought I might have tipped him off when I told him he couldn't.

This was an emotional day because we have several people leaving our school that the arts department wanted to honor.  We bought some special engraved gifts and wrote letters to them.  We honored this awesome man.  We saw the last day of some of our seniors.  It is just a lot of emotion for one day.

After the yearbooks are distributed, the signing begins.  Several students asked me to sign theirs and I told them I would be happy to sign it tomorrow as I had no mental or emotional energy left.  I had to summon some emotional energy after clean up though because the first e-mail I received at the end of this day was from a parent who was "horribly disappointed" in the way her child's senior photo printed.  After addressing that, I came home and collapsed.  I was asleep when my mom called.  We traded our cars back.  Everything is back to normal for now.  Tomorrow will involve exam review, more signing, more errors being pointed out to me, and field day.  That is back to normal, which is what makes teaching kind of an adventure.

Yearbook Dedication Day - Post 1 - Anticipation

I am going to post twice this week - once in anticipation of the yearbook dedication and one after.  The after one may not happen until the day after because I usually go home and collapse into a puddle of incoherent jelly on the day of the dedication.

The feeling of this time is hard to describe.  It is both thrilling and terrifying at the same time.  I know there are mistakes because the job is too big for there not to be.  I don't know, however, how serious some of them are.  One year, there was a fifth grader left entirely out of the yearbook.  I didn't know it until her very upset mother called the day after her daughter brought it home.  That was six years ago, and I still can't figure out how it happened.  We do things differently now, so it shouldn't happen again; but I didn't expect it the first time.  Did I order enough yearbooks or way too many?  I won't know until next week.

I've made my first boneheaded mistake of the week.  On Sunday, I sent e-mails to everyone who has not yet ordered.  At least, that's what I thought I did.  It turns out I sent e-mails to the ENTIRE sophomore class, informing them that they had not ordered.  Of course, that was not true, so I spent a good part of Sunday evening replying to frantic e-mails from people who had indeed ordered.  There's no better start to your week than one big incompetent move.  Fortunately, I'm not also in charge of the education of kids this week. (Oh, wait - exams are next week, so . . . I am - Yikes!)

We dedicate our yearbook and keep it a secret until the day of distribution.  Somehow, we have managed to keep it a secret every year (at least, as far as I know).  This is not easy when you consider there are 15-20 teenagers every year who know the secret, and I have to enlist the help of the spouse or children or siblings of this person to get the pictures and information I need.  I get it from them during first semester.  With the dedication in May, that is a long time for that person to keep a secret.  I hope this year's dedicatee doesn't know, but he or she probably won't tell me if they do.  It is a big moment for me because our entire school is on its feet to honor one deserving person.  It is one of my favorite moments of the year, reminding me every time that one of the purposes of this book is to unify the student body, faculty, and staff.  There are very few things that do that, and I am happy to be part of one of them.

I have great student staffers, who are incredibly helpful on the day of distribution.  They make sure everyone receives their book before enjoying the signing time for themselves.  It keeps me from having to be in the room at the beginning, but it also makes me nervous because I am not in the room at the beginning.  (I apparently have some control issues.)  My school is called GRACE, and because of that, we often don't get people's yearbook orders until the last possible moment.  Yes, I do blame it on the name of the school; I really believe this would not happen if we were called JUSTICE Christian School or Get Your Paperwork In On Time Christian School.  This was made even more evident today when I went to the office to pick up the orders that came in Friday and Monday morning and was given an envelope that weighs 2 pounds.

My science students are taking a test right now.  I'm actually giving tests all day today.  It is their last one of the year other than their exam, so that gives me time to deal with the orders as I sit at my desk today.  It does mean I will have to grade them, but thank the Lord for Scantron.  I also have door duty this week as well as teacher devotions on Wednesday (oh, I need to get someone to cover the door that day).  We have a town  hall meeting tonight and field day on Friday.  Fortunately, I will be doing exam review with all of my students the rest of this week, so that will take on thing off the list. 

Believe it or not, I love this insane time.  It's when I know I am in an active, vibrant, place of learning and not a stodgy, dry institution.  I wouldn't trade it.

Be Nice to Teachers in May

There are a few times of year when teaching is more difficult than others.  What times of year those are may depend on where and what you teach, but May is difficult for all teachers.

First of all, the kids are at the height of squirelliness in May.  The weather has gotten warm, so they have spring fever.  They got a small taste of freedom during spring break and then had to return to the grind.  Middle school boy testosterone levels are peaking, and they don't know what to do with it.  This results in them shoving each other into lockers.  For the serious student, their brains are just fried.   They are preparing for exams while still trying to finish up their regular work.  For high school students, there are two weeks of AP tests, so they spend all their mental energies on that.

Teachers don't have a lot of mental energy left either because they are also experiencing all of these things while writing exams and making sure they are fair.  We are figuring out how to un-decorate the room without feeding their end of year mentality.  We are trying to discipline kids behavior even while understanding why they are behaving this way.  Outside of school life doesn't really exist at this time of year, except it has to because someone decided Mother's Day should be in May.  Whoever decided that was NOT a teacher.

May is also an emotional time of year.  All the "lasts" start happening.  It is the last chapel or the last chorus concert or the last time the band will play.  At my school, the yearbook goes out at this time of year.  While that is exciting, it is extremely emotional.  Some of these people are not returning, so you are trying to sign their yearbook with everything you want to say to them.   We have awards assemblies, which can be emotional.  No matter how nice we are to the seniors, they leave every year.  Our school has a dinner for seniors, which are the three most emotional hours of the entire year.

This is also the time when teachers who won't return start announcing it.  I am at a point where I don't want to attend a faculty meeting for the rest of the year because I feel like every meeting has some sad announcement.  In this blog, I have talked a lot about our awesome IT people.  As of Monday's faculty meeting, three of the four of them have announced their departure.  Everyone has a good reason; they aren't leaving out of anger, but that doesn't change the sense of loss.  I'm not sure this happens on this scale in other professions.  Most businesses don't have discreet "years" that are stopping and starting points in what they do.  People leave businesses, but I don't think there is a one month time period in which you lose all of them at the same time.   When you love your school as much as I do, losing the people that make up that school means losing part of your heart.  Don't get me wrong; new people are fine.  We were all new people once, but the loss of some is felt very deeply by the entire school.  They just can't be replaced.  This school, in particular, has a very close faculty.  It just makes this time of year very difficult.


Teacher appreciation week takes place in May.  If you are a student or the parent of one, know this.  Teachers don't need stuff, but they do need appreciation.  A note of appreciation written from your heart will mean more to your teacher this time of year than any chocolate or gift card possibly could.  You teachers are people who are experiencing a highly emotional time, so be nice to them like you would if you had a friend going through an emotional time.  Be nice to teachers in May.