Just Keep Swimming!

Well, today I planned my lessons out until the end of the school year. Each year at about this time I find myself needing to take this step to show me that there is, indeed, an end in sight. It's not that I don't love my job, actually, I adore it. Think back though, think WAY back into that cobwebby part of your brain to when you were in high school. What did you act like those last few weeks of school? Do you actually remember learning ANYTHING during that time? Yeah, that's what I thought. Try being on the opposite side of that. My kids are not really absorbing much right now...their little sponge minds seem to be all dried up. Either that, or they are filled with lake water since that is where they really want to be right now! I can't blame them on a sunny day like this. It's so tempting to load everyone up and head out to the lake. Just picture me, "Estudiantes, di 'lago.' Esa es la palabra por lake. Estudiantes, di 'hace calor.' MUY bien! Estudiantes, ¿quieren ustedes nadar en el lago? YO TAMBIEN!"

So, planning out my lessons helps me and them. When I don't have to fly by the seat of my pants, I'm a much calmer person, and I am more able to deal with the teenage horomones that abound in my classroom each day.

On the other hand, it's not all anxiety for the year to be over! Today my Spanish 12 class started on their final project. *Sniff, sniff* These are my babies! They are the first class that I started with when I first moved up here. They are the first students that I ever tried to teach another language to! I have to say, recently I had them take a test that I had made up to try to prepare them for their big provincial final on the 21st and my little momma heart was so proud as I was marking the writing section. They can write ESSAYS in Spanish now! I taught them that! It's pretty neat to think that God has allowed me to mold brains like that...a little scary too, I guess. I'm so proud of them. It's been neat to watch them grow up, as well. I love seeing how much students change from grade 9 to grade 12. My grade 11s are some of my favourites right now. I had a bunch of them in grade 9 English and wow...they sure do change! It's so neat to build relationships with them. I always hope that I'm making some sort of an impact on them other than just teaching them Spanish and English. It makes my heart feel blessed when a student feels comfortable enough to come to me for real life advice...wow...what a job!

So, in just two and a half weeks the teaching portion of the year will be done. After that it's just test administration and paperwork. Even the test administration part won't be so bad this year. They have FINALLY decided to have the final exams in the gymnasium! SHOCK and AWE...that's what all of the teachers are feeling. That means that we will have fewer tests to oversee, because all of the students will be in ONE location. It's heavenly, it really is. I don't really think we will quite know what to do with all of our time those last two weeks of school. I mean, for someone like me, my students take their tests right away, which means I can be done with my marks within the first week. After that, it's inventory of my room...uh, how many staplers do I have? Am I missing any Spanish dictionaries? I have a feeling that will only take about, hmmm..., half a day? After that, what will I do? I guess I will have a week to start preparing for NEXT year! Wow! I'll actually be ahead of the game for once.

There's a little part of the movie "Finding Nemo" where Dori the fish says something I find quite appropriate at this time of the year, "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming!" That's what I tell my students every day! I'm going to just keep swimming all the way until June 3oth when I'm officially on holiday for a few months. Yippee!

By the way, thanks everyone for the get well wishes yesterday. I am feeling better today, although my stomach is still doing gymnastics every now and then. I was able to eat all meals today though! Gracias for your care and concern...I felt so loved!