End of School Blues

So STAAR Testing is finally over (for me anyway because there's no way I'm doing Summer School this year), the school year is winding down, students are restless for summer vacation, I'm restless for summer vacation, but we're all stuck here for another 2 weeks. I'm trying my hardest to keep it together, but it's been a real struggle!

Currently I'm battling the worst case of allergies I've ever had, and yes that is saying something because I am the queen of allergy attacks! I'm medicated, my nose is running, my eyes are watering, and I have to keep my secret stash of tissues hidden because my students keep trying to steal them. Yesterday my nose was so red one of my students asked if it was bleeding. But today I have found the right combination of allergy medicine, nose spray and decongestants to get at least half of my nose working!

When I was a student the end of the year was always a time for hugs and goodbyes. We made tie dye shirts for sports day, we had pizza parties, lots of movies were watched, but that was all in elementary school. I live in the world of the middle school. I have 4 different classes that I see, so there's really no way to get them together for a pizza party. They just finally got concerned about their grades so they're trying to do extra work to avoid summer school so there's no time to watch a movie (not that we would be allowed to do that anyway). We don't even have yearbooks!

But many of my kids have been bringing their own little journals that have become autograph books of sorts. I think its a cool idea, because there's more room to write per person, and if they're friends on social media then you don't really need a photo of them. I decided to pass around my own little journal, because I'm quite the narcissistic and I want to know what people think about me, aaaaaaaand because I'm genuinely curious about what they have to say.

For the most part it's been very sweet. Of course I've been selective about who I pass it out to, but I haven't given them any instructions on what to write. I had one kid do the stereotypical "Here's my signature for when I become famous". Some people just put "Have a great summer" which is so very lame, what is this middle school?!?! (LOL) One kid put that he didn't learn anything in my class, but he passed the STAAR test so I must be doing something right! Several kids shared memories they had in my class. A few kids actually apologized for their behavior in my class which was very mature.

I plan on keeping this little booklet somewhere safe so that way next year (and the years that follow) when I'm dying and trying to decide if my entire life plan of becoming a teacher was a mistake I'll have some little rays of sunshine to look back on and hopefully that will get me through the struggles that will come. Because the struggles will come. This is not an easy profession we have chosen. If it was easy, then everyone would be doing it.

I haven't even talked about all the things that I dealt with this year, I think that's going to be my next post, or maybe next three posts because a metric crap ton of crap happened this year. Some of it was hilarious, some of it was maddening, some of it was heartbreaking. But we all survived it, and we're all going to have to survive it again next year, and the next year, until one day we die...


I need a nap...