On the Verge...

I have planned for this moment for the last year. I knew that I was going to quit teaching at the end of this school year. I knew that I was going to pack everything in my room and exit the building on June 4th, never to return in the same capacity again. I knew that I was going to be sad. I knew things were going to change. I didn't know things were going to change so very much. Now that the theatre season is officially over, it's like I have nothing to be here for anymore. That's just a testament to the fact that the teaching part of the school day is the torturous part and the after school rehearsal part of the school day is the redeeming part. So when you take the redeeming part out, all you have left is torture. I literally can't stand being in this building anymore. Without seeing my favorite kids at rehearsal every day, I just want to get the day over with and go home and watch TV. "Why CAN'T you see your favorite kids every day anyway?" Y...

You know when someone shows up at a party at your house... and they never take off their jacket? Not like a cute, little,this-is-really-a-part-of-my-outfit jacket, but like a ski jacket. Of course you are going to think that they don't want to be there. And, odds are, they will only stay for 5-10 minutes and then explain that they have another party to attend, or didn't get much sleep the night before, or left the oven on at home. I think it says even more when someone does not take off their jacket throughout the course of an 8-9 hour work day. Now, it's one thing if it is cold inside. Sometimes it is cold here in our classrooms at Hendrickson High School. But we all have individually controlled thermostats that work fairy well 85-90% of the time. And still my co-workers and I will have one of those days where we are too lazy to mess with the temperature and we just never take off our jackets. We are supposed to be skillful educators who welcome students into our ro...

The longer I teach, the more that I find I get involved and (sadly) interested in the high school drama that is constantly unfolding around me. I have a student who is more like a little sister than a student. I actually have never had her in a class. She has been a part of the extracurricular theatre program, so there's a little less of a boundary there than there is with my normal students. She supplies me with all of my information. She is wonderfully (and yet horribly) uninhibited and she will tell me anything. So tonight I not only found out about the relationships that I suspected, but also found out that the children are drinking. And now I have a little inkling of what it's like to be a parent of a teenager. I mean, I did that stuff when I was 18. And I knew that it was wrong. I was a bit more restrained than most of these kids are, though, so I am a bit worried. And how do you say: "Don't do what I did." Especially when you are NOT a parent th...

We are officially done with One Act Play! This had been the best and longest season that Hendrickson High School theater has ever had. We made it to the state competition. We did well. We didn't place. And we are all now on the down hill ride to the Summer. I have no desire to be at school. I feel like I am struggling to stay awake, alive, and well. Then I look around at the teenagers sitting in my desks and I realize that they want to be there even less than I do. Of course they don't want to be there. They are teenagers and the weather is nice and they have their yearbooks and their caps and gowns in hand and they are being made to sit inside for 8 hours a day for little to no purpose. I'm starting to understand that no teacher (especially no theater teacher) really teaches for the last 3 weeks of the year. The seniors leave a week early, everyone else is preparing for finals, and the students mentality is literally: "I worked hard for the last 32 weeks, I ...

This swine flu thing is really getting out of control. Not the actual flu (of which most of you are aware), but the absolutely catastrophic reactions to it. All field trips and inter-school events have been canceled until May 11th. Right now, I am not greatly affected. The only field trip that we have planned is the STATE ONE ACT PLAY COMPETITION! Luckily, this is scheduled for May 15th and so this will hopefully all be blown over by that point. However, they have postponed the 1A, 2A, and 3A competitions that were scheduled for May 8 &9, so I wouldn't put anything past them. I believe that up to 3 school districts in the state of Texas are completely shut down until May 11th. There may be more at this point, but I am avoiding news stalking. God works in mysterious ways, though, ya know? I mean, so far, a bunch of surprising and uncontrollable things that have happened have ended up being huge blessings in disguise. We submitted 2 different plays for approval with UIL ...

I think one of the hardest things about growing up and becoming an adult is that you are expected to relinquish certain "childish" things. The relinquishing isn't necessarily the hard part. It's the expectation that comes from some unknown societal norm, which is somehow able to enforce the ideas of proper and improper adult functioning. This expectation applies to many things, but I've specifically been thinking about it in regard to literature recently. My high schoolers have been crazy over this book called "Twilight" for at least the past year. Girls are forever quoting it, referencing it, and alluding to it. Now, it really is a teenage GIRL thing, but it is extremely prevalent within that all too dramatic realm. In hearing so much about it for so long, I decided I wanted to read it to see what all of the fuss was about. I mean, I was pretty much the president of the Harry Potter Holdout Party for years until someone finally tricked me into re...

Only a sick person would not take a sick day.  I mean, sick in the head.  So I must be... sick in the head... as well as in the throat. I think back on the amount of sick days that I have taken when I never went to the doctor, I wasn't "contagious", and I almost definitely should  have gone into work.  But now I am a teacher and have subsequently gone crazy.  In more ways than one.  I have strep throat.  I have been to the doctor.  He has written me a "note" and told me not to go into work tomorrow.   This is the PERFECT sick day, right?  But I'm not sure that I can do it.  I told you: I've gone insane. I am worried about my students getting their work done.  I didn't make plans for a sub.  My kids are supposed to be in a computer lab tomorrow and I HAVE to be there to supervise.  They can't function without me.  Or can they and I'm not giving them enough credit?  Do I risk getting them sick in order to make sure they don't kill an innoce...