Now that I've got it... What do I do with it?
Ahhh summer.
It seemed for a long time that it would never come. Because my school district needed extra time last summer to finish a building we started after labor day - making June 9th that last full day of school. Ick. And then it snowed this winter. A LOT. This made June 11th the last full day for students and June 13th the last full day for me. Unfortunately all of the other schools in the area were finished the last week in May, and all of my students seemed to think it should have been the same for them. No no, children. You're still here for 3 more weeks. The sad part was that the faculty joined in their opinion.
I don't consider myself to be a work-aholic. At all. I can certainly enjoy down time. You don't get labeled as "the girl NOT to room with if you wish to finish your assignments on time this semester" in college by being a work-aholic. However, my last performance of the school year was on the evening of June 11th - AFTER the last full day of school. I didn't click in to summer mode until the day after it had officially arrived. This created a highly irritating 3 week period in which I wanted to throw things at all of my co-workers. Several of them stopped awarding grades a full 3 weeks before school ended and gleefully proclaimed it the right thing to do. When I challenged that obnoxiously cheerful announcement in the faculty lounge over lunch I received the response, "Cassie, do you honestly think the kids are still LEARNING at this point?" Uh.... Yes- they better damned well be because I'm still here teaching them. AND holding them accountable.
This encounter irritated me more as I fielded 3 phone calls from parents wondering why their striaght-A students received B-'s in band for 4th term. Two of the parents still didn't understand when I informed them that their child didn't even bring an instrument to class for the last seven school days. One of them even responded, "But my son didn't turn in any math homework during the last two full weeks and he still got an A in that class. Why should band be any different?" I think I broke something in my brain straining to find an answer that wouldn't reflect negatively on my fellow educators. All I could come up with was something like, "I have very high expectations for your very talented son, and all of his classmates."
(On the up-side: The final performance that was after the end of the school year was for middle school jazz band at the 8th grade award ceremony. Between sets I asked the kids for honest feedback on the scheduling of the gig.
Me: So, tell me, and I won't be offended if you don't like it, what do you guys think of this gig? Do you like performing after the last day of school, or is this kind of a drag? Should we do it next year, or axe it?
Various comments from them: This is awesome! We've never played for this many people!
We sound SOOO good because we've worked on the songs for so long!
Five of us walked to Katie's house and had a pool party and pizza before this! We wouldn't have done it if we didn't have this performance.
Now we can all sign each other's yearbooks!
It gave me something to work on for the last couple weeks. (I now LOVE this kid.)
This is a great way to end the school year.
Can you get us some gigs over the summer?
I was shocked. Nobody had anything negative to say- and they're not shy about telling me what they don't like. It was excellent validation for a year's hard work.)
Nevertheless, summer came and I embraced it joyfully. I even went golfing with the middle school teachers. It was great.
But now I am getting irritated everyday at my aimlessness. It's only been a week. I think I only like wasting time when I'm wasting it with somebody. I need a friend in the neighborhood.
It seemed for a long time that it would never come. Because my school district needed extra time last summer to finish a building we started after labor day - making June 9th that last full day of school. Ick. And then it snowed this winter. A LOT. This made June 11th the last full day for students and June 13th the last full day for me. Unfortunately all of the other schools in the area were finished the last week in May, and all of my students seemed to think it should have been the same for them. No no, children. You're still here for 3 more weeks. The sad part was that the faculty joined in their opinion.
I don't consider myself to be a work-aholic. At all. I can certainly enjoy down time. You don't get labeled as "the girl NOT to room with if you wish to finish your assignments on time this semester" in college by being a work-aholic. However, my last performance of the school year was on the evening of June 11th - AFTER the last full day of school. I didn't click in to summer mode until the day after it had officially arrived. This created a highly irritating 3 week period in which I wanted to throw things at all of my co-workers. Several of them stopped awarding grades a full 3 weeks before school ended and gleefully proclaimed it the right thing to do. When I challenged that obnoxiously cheerful announcement in the faculty lounge over lunch I received the response, "Cassie, do you honestly think the kids are still LEARNING at this point?" Uh.... Yes- they better damned well be because I'm still here teaching them. AND holding them accountable.
This encounter irritated me more as I fielded 3 phone calls from parents wondering why their striaght-A students received B-'s in band for 4th term. Two of the parents still didn't understand when I informed them that their child didn't even bring an instrument to class for the last seven school days. One of them even responded, "But my son didn't turn in any math homework during the last two full weeks and he still got an A in that class. Why should band be any different?" I think I broke something in my brain straining to find an answer that wouldn't reflect negatively on my fellow educators. All I could come up with was something like, "I have very high expectations for your very talented son, and all of his classmates."
(On the up-side: The final performance that was after the end of the school year was for middle school jazz band at the 8th grade award ceremony. Between sets I asked the kids for honest feedback on the scheduling of the gig.
Me: So, tell me, and I won't be offended if you don't like it, what do you guys think of this gig? Do you like performing after the last day of school, or is this kind of a drag? Should we do it next year, or axe it?
Various comments from them: This is awesome! We've never played for this many people!
We sound SOOO good because we've worked on the songs for so long!
Five of us walked to Katie's house and had a pool party and pizza before this! We wouldn't have done it if we didn't have this performance.
Now we can all sign each other's yearbooks!
It gave me something to work on for the last couple weeks. (I now LOVE this kid.)
This is a great way to end the school year.
Can you get us some gigs over the summer?
I was shocked. Nobody had anything negative to say- and they're not shy about telling me what they don't like. It was excellent validation for a year's hard work.)
Nevertheless, summer came and I embraced it joyfully. I even went golfing with the middle school teachers. It was great.
But now I am getting irritated everyday at my aimlessness. It's only been a week. I think I only like wasting time when I'm wasting it with somebody. I need a friend in the neighborhood.