This is my favorite time of the year (besides September, but then there isn't much that can compete with The Reno Rib Cook-off.) This is my favorite
teaching time of the year. State tests are finished. Whether we passed them or not, there's not much I can do about it now. Gone are the days of poring over the standards looking for the one skill I might have forgotten to
cram in teach before the Tests. No more am I trading PE time for test prep. (Gulp-can you believe I actually did that?) I can now teach what I know they need to know but in a way that applies the learning to real life, not bubbled-in-answer life. It's liberating.
I also like this time of year because my class pretty much feels like family now. Even the stinkers have a little place in my heart. Every year at this time it's weird to think that next year they'll be someone else's kids and that I'll feel this way about a whole new class. Not that I won't be just a tiny bit happy to see them go. Okay, after the year that I've had, I'll be more than a tiny bit happy, to be honest.
Next month, I'll likely start my "Next Year Notebook" where I will spend whole
hours chunks of minutes daydreaming about the very smart changes I'll make to my practice next year. That's one of the best parts of teaching--getting to start over every September. April is a perfect time to evaluate what worked, what could work better and what would be better to discard completely.
Probably the best, best part of March is that the countdown for summer is now on. Third quarter report cards go out this week, which means the weeks remaining are in the single digits. Warm weather and longer days cement into my subconscious the knowledge that summer is right around the corner.
