Wrapping Up

I'm wrapping up my first year as department chair and my 10th year as a teacher.  It's been a challenging, rewarding, frustrating, and amazing year.  We have roughly two weeks remaining (because I refuse to count the three days they tacked on at the end) and while my motto is usually finish strong, I've come to realize that the end of the year is similar to running.  The end of the year is really about tapering for the big race, which for some is the ECA, final exams, AP exams, or for me, landing the plane.

For a long time I tried to use the last couple weeks of school for intense training, but have learned over time that the mileage, speed work, and interval training has already been done.  We did that from August until a couple of weeks ago.  We trained hard, we varied our workouts, and we grew as learners and individuals.  Now, it's time to taper.  It's time to enjoy the last few weeks with each other, to reflect on the good, the bad, and the ugly.  It's time to take the class outside and let them free write.  It's time to let them enjoy a nice game of Scrabble.  It's time to teach the fun stuff that we've had to keep locked away because we couldn't find a standard to match it, even though we knew our kids would love it.  It's time to look forward to next fall, to a fresh start, to new faces, and to new energy.

We're all tired and ready for school to be out, and that's OK. It's human.  But somewhere along the way, I think we've forgotten that it's OK for the end of the year to be a celebration.

So, let's get the party started :)