0 - Cross-posted from Biking to School, where you can catch up on my retirement thoughts, starting in 20, and counting backward:
Zero more days to be a teacher. Made it. Whew.
Thought this would be a good way to close this out.
Joe, my third grade classroom mascot, said it best for me, at the end of my 31 year teaching career. He was the last to share at Show and Tell on the last day of school. He got a big round of applause.
1 - Cross-posted from Biking to School, where you can catch up on my retirement thoughts, starting in 20, and counting backward:
One day left. My last day of teaching kids was Friday. Monday will be my last day under contract as a teacher.
At this moment on Sunday, I'm physically exhausted and emotionally numb. Hoping to get in to school today to finish cleaning out my room, because really, I need more than a day. It is amazing what a person can accumulate over the years.
Here are a few pictures from the end of the school year:
I think this will not be the post where I thank everybody. That'll be "0". And then there are replies needed on Facebook, email, etc. I will do that Monday. Must get the physical work taken care of.
3 - Cross-posted from Biking to School, where you can catch up on my retirement thoughts, starting in 20, and counting backward:
Three days left being a teacher.
After an incredibly intense day in the classroom, giving away just about everything but the kitchen sink to my kids, I settled in at the computer at home to work on the Jr. Seahawk Newsletter for the last time.
It's the student newsletter, something I inherited in my third year of teaching at Arbor Heights - which means I've done it for 18 years. It was started by another teacher, Gretchen Thompson, my first year there, so this year has been Volume 21.
I have billed it for many years as "The oldest continuously published elementary school student newspaper on the Internet!" Nobody has ever questioned that, because it's true. It first appeared online, on the school's website, in 1994.
Just for kicks and giggles I decided to count all the editions. 144. At an average of 4 hours production time per issue, that works out to 576 hours. Roughly 16 school weeks. Count the several from 2002 and 2004 I have on my computer, never got uploaded (but will this summer), and we're looking at 18 school weeks, easily.
Half a year's worth of work, sitting at my computer, getting student writing edited and online.
Tomorrow I have to get there extra early to run off 400 copies. For the last time.
4 - Cross-posted from Biking to School, where you can catch up on my retirement thoughts, starting in 20, and counting backward:
Four days left to be a teacher. So many things to write about, and so very little time.
I guess what struck me and stuck with me was connecting with my colleagues today. Not the people I work with every day, but my virtual colleagues. I let the news drop in the Classblogmeister list that I was retiring, as I was letting David Warlick know about a sluggish response on my classroom blog. Several very nice responses followed, wishing me well, and thanking me for this or that over the years. From really, really fantastic teachers whom I admire greatly. So it meant a lot.
But it struck me that the people I work with every day really have no idea what I do online, what I have accomplished, have influenced, or have created with technology over the years. Goodness knows, I have tried. It is like I have this secret life that nobody I work with knows about.
This is a sadness for me, because I really have tried to be a positive influence in technology adoption and innovation in my own school and district. There are many reasons it did not happen, of course, but I'm not ready to start burning those bridges just yet....
