Weekly Post: 6/12 - 6/18

Sunday, 6/12:

Ben used all of his spare time painting and putting finishing touches on the table. Of course, Kingsley kept watch over the process.

Monday, 6/13:

These were from various days. But, since the beginning of spring, blooms have been constantly surprising us on bushes and trees that we didn't know were blooming plants at all. This is 80% due to our horticultural ignorance, but it's brought us a lot of joy. It's like finding $5 in your pocket every day. And they seem to take turns so that there is always something blooming in our yard. This was probably planned out in depth by someone once, but I don't know that person, and I just get to enjoy the fruits of their labor.

Here is my student Marcell with one of the demonstrations we did about center of mass. I originally had two forks balancing on a toothpick on a cup. But we decided to push it further and balance two forks on a tooth pick that was balancing on a toothpick that was stuck in the styrofoam. In this picture (originally a video) he's explaining it to his classmates.

Tuesday, 6/14:

Nothing has helped us to make friends like Kingsley, especially friends between the ages of 4-12. He is a celebrity in the neighborhood, and most nights, 5-10 of his adoring (and adorable) friends knock on our door and ask to play with Kingsley. This day I came home to a bunch of bikes blocking my driveway and a horde of kids in my yard. Free puppysitting. It's awesome. 

Wednesday, 6/15:

Not everything about owning a dog is adorable. Kingsley pees in our house approximately every other day. And then to add insult to injury, he enjoys chasing whatever paper towel or rag we use to clean it up, thereby making the process more difficult (both physically and emotionally).

Thursday, 6/16:

Graduation! My students are at the top, as they deserve to be. I L-O-V-E these kids.  They are amazing. Pictured students are: Jayson, Jujuan, Sable, Romelle, Melvin, Breanna, Tracey, Ty'Ras, Chris, Recara, and Darnelle.

There were several really meaningful moments in the ceremony:
1 - As I said on facebook the next day: "At the beginning of the ceremony, the national anthem recording stopped working after a few words. While I just looked anxiously around at the other staff, one of my brave students continued on singing. Gradually, the entire auditorium joined in, and we finished the last few lines in unison. An imperfection created the most perfect moment. A memory I'll treasure forever".
2 - One of our students is severely cognitively impaired, is homeless the majority of the time, and has been in high school for six years. To say the least, he is very different and has known struggle from an early age. This year, with a lot of hard work, he graduated. By the luck of his last name, his was the last name to be called to receive his diploma. To my surprise, when his name was announced, my students jumped to their feet and gave Cory a tumultuous round of applause and the loudest cheer I've ever heard. The word jubilant is the only one that feels appropriate to describe his walk/run down the stage as he gave me and several other teachers huge bear hugs. As he climbed down the steps, he was rushed in a massive group hug by Central's class of 2016. Though I now vaguely remember that our principal urged the kids back to their seats and the chancellor of the EAA spoke briefly after that, I will always think of Corey's walk as the real concluding moment of both the ceremony and my teaching career. It was beautiful. It was joyful. It was kind. I can't cry enough about it (as evidenced by my crying now, over a month after the fact).

The ceremony was held in our beautiful auditorium which fit our graduating class of ~70 quite nicely. 

Ms Jones (12th grade ELA teacher) and I have worked together a lot this year. In this picture we were waiting to enter.

Also, you can tell in this picture that I am wearing makeup which segues nicely into a weird story about me. It's such an accurate summary of the slob I am that I left my makeup in DC when I went for (Great) Uncle Bob's funeral in early May. I didn't notice I was missing the makeup until the week of prom and graduation...It made me laugh to realize I hadn't even thought of wearing makeup for over a month. And yet, it also made me cry because even Target makeup is expensive when you are replacing everything you owned. So thoughtless. But no use crying over spilt milk!

Friday, 6/17:

We have used this birthday barbecue about once a week since we got it! Especially because Michigan has been so hot this summer.