Done.

The 2012-2013 school year is over here. We had our last day with students on Friday, and I spent the afternoon making sure that as much of my stuff was as finished as possible. Saturday was designated as a work day, but there wasn't much work left to do. My classroom was clean, my grades were recorded in the proper places, and the shelves were covered. Off to vacation!

We are staying in the village until Memorial Day, in order that we may attend the wedding of two of the children of our friends. It should be a joyful occasion. The next night, we take Alice on the red-eye to Chicago.

It has been nearly ten months since we were last in the Midwest. Much has changed since then. Alice will get to meet her family back east, and they will meet little Tac'aq. We are all ready to go, and we are ready to be reunited with friends and family.

We return in August, and this blog will pick up again at that time. It will be the beginning of year five of this new phase of my life.

Wednesday...

Yesterday was better than I might have suspected. My departing 8th graders presented me with a photo collage farewell piece that I got a big kick out of. We are mostly focusing on catching up on stuff that needs to be caught up upon today. It gives some kids time to fill in some holes.

I am also looking to next year. I have signed up for a summer course in some cooperative teaching methods that I think will be helpful. It is a three day seminar focusing on grades 5-8 (my grades).
We will have a new history curriculum that I want to get some advance on as well.

The baby is swell. She is sleeping very well through the night. I am told that this will not last. I am not that concerned. She is the pearl of my evenings, even when she has diaper blowouts. You know that you are an idiot when baby poop makes you laugh.

I can't seem to shake the respiratory blues. I have a cold that comes on the heels of a month-long case of bronchitis. Annoying, but I suspect that some rest beginning next week will help on that score.

Another day closer...

Close...

It's Tuesday, and our classroom days are numbered. Thursday will be a half day of class with a focus in here on makeup, and an afternoon devoted to cleaning up this space and the village generally. Friday is a field day of sorts, although we tend to be short of dry fields, and it is only supposed to reach a high temperature of 32 degrees. It might be reasonable to say that these activities will take place mainly in the gym.

Saturday is a work day focusing mostly on cleanup and record keeping. My guess is that with a little effort in advance, I can keep that mercifully short. Then, I am done for this school year. We will resume the struggle the first week of August.

It is quiet in here this morning. There was a death here this weekend, and the funeral is today. I know that a number of kids have been up all night keeping vigil with the body of the deceased, and there is a definite zombie look on some of the countenances around the classroom. It could be a challenging day...

Two Weeks...

Almost done. We finish with students two weeks from today. Graduation is next Friday. Another school year, this one the 4th, almost at an end.

I was thinking about my former life the other day while I was walking the dogs. It affords me a good opportunity to let my mind wander aimlessly, for the most part. The dogs pretty much know what is expected of them, and I just need to keep them out of puddles at night. The puddles are frozen in the morning.

I kind of find it hard to believe that I did what I did for thirty years, because it seems distant and unreal. Whether it is good or bad, a teacher in this village is what I am now, and that is the identity that I am content with.

A friend and former colleague asked me, not long after I first started out here, whether I missed the practice of law, and whether I ever wished to return. I said, "Not for a moment." I still feel the same way. I am not ashamed or regretful of the time that I spent as a lawyer. I still maintain my licensure. But that was another part of my life in a different time. Time for something different...

Flying solo...

My wife and the baby are off to Anchorage for follow-up check-ups. Two days. I don't like being alone that much these days. Maybe domestic life has spoiled me...

More Testing Fun...

We have many, many standardized tests that we give to our students in this age of testing mania. I counted up a total of approximately discrete testing "events" that students are required to sit for in the course of the school year. That counts reading, writing, and math tests as individual "events." Some of the tests are given three times each school year. The contrast is very strong with my school career, which was back in the stone age. I think that we took a standardized test every three years or so. I think that these kids take more tests by September than I took from kindergarten through eighth grade.

One of the tests is given on computer, and is internet based. I was in the middle of one of the tests yesterday when the power in the school went down. Voila. No server. No communication with the test site. In the middle of the test! Even after the school's generator was turned back on, our server needed to be reset. I was able to get in after things were back up and pause and restart the test for most of the takers. Not for everyone, though. A couple of kids had frozen test screens, and I just suspended their tests so that they can, I hope, finish them later.

Nice relaxing way to spend the afternoon. More testing today. I hope that the power will stay on...

Down the Stretch...

We have survived the twin traumas of Testing week and Cultural week, and are back to some sort of state of semi-equilibrium. We have Prom on Friday night, and Graduation coming up as well. There is to real enormous trauma, more like a management headache and a task that needs more hands than are sometimes available for the task. No biggie.

The light is beginning to rule our lives. There is less and less darkness, and my sleep tends to follow light and dark closely at this time of year. My kids are coming in sleepier and crabbier by the day. Getting them to do things is getting more tricky. No biggie.

My mind is filled more and more with thoughts of going back to Michigan to see my friends and family. It will have been nearly ten months since I have seen many of them by the time that we return. Although the holiday break in Anchorage was simpler and less tiring than our usual mad dash back east, we haven't gotten to see many of our loved ones in a long time. No biggie.

My baby was very cranky yesterday, but she woke up this morning with a smile for Daddy. That's why the rest of this is no biggie...