The countdown is officially on and has been on. It is June 17th. Kids are out of here on June 23rd, and I am out of here on June 27th. It's over; I'm done. We're all done (psychologically). Kids leave school at 12:30, and we must stay until 3:30 doing silly dilly paperwork.
Today, I organized my papers for next year while I watched the movie Tangled. You see, we're getting a little desperate here. Next week, we get to leave at 2:30. Woohoo (sarcasm). This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard of: keeping kids in school after their exams are over. How silly! There's no teaching, no nothing! I read to them, have them do "academic" activities, artwork, cleaning and organizing, and cartoon watching. TOO MUCH CAKE is being brought around. I'm tired of cake.
So, it's been a full year of teaching. What have I learned you may ask? Well, I've learned more than I probably realize, but much of it belongs in the category I call "intangibles". I seem to be chock full of intangible skills. So, I can live life but don't actually know anything useful.
Possible job ideas/skills teaching has provided me:
-herding: I have learned the skill of "herding" large groups of beings and bringing them to the location I want them to be in
-copygirl: secret dream job. Wow, can I make good copies. I can even fix the copy machine if it's broken! I'm resourceful.
-reading with expression: I've always enjoyed this, but I think I could make an all right public speaker or public book reader. Or maybe even read for an audiobook company. Oh, the possibilities. I've got such lovely practice changing my facial expressions and my voices to accompany certain stories.
-intimidation and guilt-tripping: "you're going to make Ms. Keri go to the crazy house and then you'll need to bake her some delicious chocolate chip cookies."
-dramatic displays: A week ago, we were reviewing for the math exam. We were playing a "math bee", and I had 4 divided by 2 on the board. I asked one of my boys to answer who was fairly good with numbers. He said 6. 8. 2. I said it is division. You ask yourself, "What times 2 equals 4?" He again gave a wrong answer. I said, "do you know what division is?" He shook his head. I threw my marker to the side against the wall and said "see ya later!" I left the room and had to collect myself outside the door. Hmm... perhaps they shouldn't leave me to deal with children.
So you see? There's all kinds of "intangibles" I've learned and skills I've acquired that I can take with me to...well nowhere. I feel like a 20-something non-grownup who still doesn't know what to do when she does grow up. This was a fun year in many ways, and the biggest learning experience ever, but is my heart in it? Not sure yet. I've got lots of "intangibles" in my bag of tricks, but maybe it's time to get some "tangibles" in there as well.
Perhaps the summer break is what I need to refresh my brain to start another year of fluent reading, superb copies, dramatic displays, and a classroom full of kids, who are possibly all in cahoots to send me away to the mental institution, but I still love at the end of the day. Even if this isn't what I'm meant to do, there are still moments of human connection that are so brilliant and beautiful it's bound to change you.
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