Weekly Post: 6/19 - 6/25

Sunday, 6/19:

We had Harry over for dinner since Sarah was out of town. He got to meet Kingsley, and Ben spontaneously informed him that he is Kingsley's godfather. What a responsibility. 

Ben also finished the table in time for dinner. To celebrate, I made strawberry shortcake. Or really...I just wanted to eat shortcake. I make a Carly copycat recipe with strawberry sauce and a biscuit-like shortcake. Love this stuff. I'm drooling right now.

A picture of the various steps of the table-building process that took place over the last two months.

Monday, 6/20:

Kingsley's first vet appointment. He was a champ, and everyone in the office fell in love with him. Obviously.

Tuesday, 6/21:

This day, one of my students, ZiAyr'e gave a really good answer to my question about calculating center of mass. It was her last day of school (excused absences for a summer internship). As I wrote what she said on the board, I started crying because I realized it was the last time I'd get to hear one of ZiAyr'e's incredibly thoughtful answers. And I would never have another student like her, because I won't have any more students. My students jumped up and enveloped me in a group hug where 25% of us were crying. Then I insisted on a picture, where all of them (besides Chiniya in the pink), decided to try to be hard. Whatever. They're the softest. I did a lot of crying this week saying goodbye to many of my students. I'm kind of grieving over leaving teaching, but I (99.9%) know it's the right thing.

In this picture, it's Josef, Jordan, me, Chiniya, Daija, ZiAyr'e, D'Sharia, Eric, Deshawn, and Victor. [You can also tell from this picture, how low attendance is at the end of the year! That's what the EAA gets for 1. Keeping kids in school until June 29 and 2. Scheduling finals for 2 weeks before the end of the year.]

Wednesday, 6/22:

When my first hour found out I took a picture and cried with my last hour, they wanted a picture too. These were more of my favorite underclassmen. From left to right: Sanch'Z, Amir, Tyree, Darrell, Desmond, me, Erin, Deand're, Leroy, and Tia.

This day during my prep I went to my friend, Mr. Gehringer's, room where they were playing Uno and "learning about probability". Who cares. It was fun. My students' excitement about the game made the game better than in any other circumstances. It was one of those moments that reminded how my students are just kids. Kids in a hard spot. But just kids. My student Isaiah won a few rounds and was being a sore winner. So when I beat him in the last game, I told him I needed to take a picture so we could record what a loser looked like. Did my competitiveness get the best of me? You decide.

Thursday, 6/23:

While school technically continued for another 4 school days, I was pulled into district PD at the central office for three of the four last days. And none of my students are really expected to come the last three days anyway. So, we had our extra credit quiz and end-of-school party on Thursday. Kids brought tons of food, and I brought peanut butter rice krispie treats and blueberry cream cheese coffee cake. And I ordered pizza and bagels for different class hours. My kids know what it means when I walk into school with bags on bags on bags. We loved it. 

Friday, 6/24:
This day we didn't take any pictures. I went downtown for work for the day (choosing a science curriculum for next year, blegh) and then met up with Kathryn and Justin for drinks at The Jolly Pumpkin. For some reason, they can't put away as many beers as I can diet cokes. Weird. Reigning champ.

Saturday, 6/25:

Sarah and I threw Ben and Harry a surprise birthday party in our backyard. We had our friend Kyle invite Harry and Ben to go see the newest x-men movie while we set up and got people hiding.  There were around 20 good friends in attendance.  It was a lot of work, but we had a lot of fun (and ate a lot of cake). [In this picture, Sarah, Jenna, Joe, Emily, Anna, Andrew, Michael, Ben, and me]

Ben's birthday present was a game called spike-ball which is transportable game that vaguely resembles volleyball. We also had ladder ball and bocce at the party. [In this picture, Davy, Andrew, Nena, Sarah (and Rhett), Devin, and Harry)

After all the clean-up was done. Which, of course, many of our friends insisted on staying to help with, there was a nice round of fireworks going off over the park near our house. We all sat outside and watched, and it was a nice end to the evening. (Of course I told Ben I planned it all)