Things of Varying Levels of Interest

1.  As you saw, my Adv. Drama class (finally) performed their last play of the year Monday night.  While I am glad they had a chance to redeem themselves from a below-average (okay, horrific) performance in school on Friday, having a show on Monday night has truly confused my mental calendar.  Almost hourly I have to remind myself that it is not Friday yet.

2.  Additionally, I felt less relief than I anticipated upon the wrapping up of that show.  Instead, I found my extracurricular mind simply transferred all that stress to the upcoming New York trip.  I realized that I was not actually done with field trips for the year, far from it.  In nine days I will be in charge of ten teenagers on their first trip in New York.  That produces more tension than I anticipated.

3.  To deal with that tension, as is so often the case, my pre-trip preparations are in full swing.  Tomorrow is The Big Meeting (i.e. the one parents are invited to for reassurance), and in anticipation of that I have created a six-page handout for those students and their parents, a to-the-hour itinerary, multiple charts and tables to track details from emergency contact information to confirmation numbers, and I just set out supplies from my closet to demonstrate proper packing techniques and tricks.  I will overwhelm them with organization!

4.  The school year, as you can imagine, is wrapping up.  Between review sessions, cleaning out the theater, assigning final projects, and constantly asking students to put away their yearbooks during class,  I also administered finals today to my seniors and am grading those as quickly as possible in advance of their (hopeful) graduation on Sunday. 

5.  I also made waffles for my Humanities class today while they were testing.  They had been professing their love for the waffles sold at school.  I needed to correct their tastes by introducing them to Belgian waffles.

6.  Their tastes are now adequately refined.  I am a successful Humanities teacher.

7.  However, I also managed to coat both of my guidebooks for the summer with butter in the process of said refinement.  I am now curious to see what happens when buttered guidebooks meet 100+ degree temperatures.

8.  In addition to my baking skills, I have also donated a lot of my prep time at school to helping the various graduation speakers prepare for their speeches.  That's reminding me that when I don't have to work 14-hour Saturdays I actually really like coaching public speaking.

9.  But that still doesn't mean I'm looking forward to next year.  I'm more burned out than I've ever been before, and I'm not sure a summer break will fix me.

10.  Still, I'm really looking forward to my trips.

11.  I'm also lusting after this hat: