May 2006 Published article in local paper

The Ambivalence of the End!!

The end of the school year brings many emotions for teachers and students alike. The month of May, while frenetic in duties and chores, leaves room for the anticipation of a blissful break from education.

Students and teachers are both prepping for finals, while quietly pining for the summer break. This final, a comprehensive measure, is used to see how much of our daily ritual of teaching for the past 179 days is forever fermented in our students minds. There’s a sense of pride in a concluding final or project. It’s a measure to see how we, as teachers, have covered the proper curriculum for our students. Did the fruits of our labor stay retained in the minds of our youth? Did we present the information in a sequential, structured, orderly and creative way for them to boost it to their long term memory?

Education is busy these days. With School Improvement Goals, the implementation of specific learning strategies and the advent of technology, curriculum can get crowded. It’s not simply a textbook/lecture/notes format anymore in the classroom. We utilize graphic organizers, those lovely visual maps that convey information. We have internet capabilities in every classroom, and are blessed our district subscribes to the online Reading and Math Academy that reinforces those skills. We implement hands on activities, those applications of the topic, as an alternative method of delivery in hopes of mastery by our students. We use every means possible to get the lesson across. The more creative we get commands a more intense desire to learn from our students.

However, the bottom line is each and every thing we teach has a meaning and purpose. Regardless of the method of delivery, we are striving to teach these delightful, burgeoning minds in the midst of adolescence. Education is not easy. It’s hectic. It’s a year of structure wound around daily age-appropriate lessons.

So, the conclusion of the school year does bring across various emotions. I am always pleased that I feel I did justice for the content areas I’m responsible for. I look back and manage to realize that along with the appropriate knowledge provided daily, I hope I blended in some lifelong skills for them to chew on. I will miss the routine. I will miss the sequential stacking of knowledge I’m responsible to deliver daily. I will miss my students eagerness to learn, and their penchance for proper behaviors.

However, I’m also looking forward to being “off-task” for a few sunshine-laden days on the golf course!!

By Julie Blair, AHS Special Education Teacher