Wednesday, June 27, 2007

The End is Near!

Last day for students and teachers today! Yea!!! I still have Thursday and Friday to clean up the bits and pieces that need to be squared away. Interesting how there is always more to be done then you think there is.

I've been up since 3:30 and am wired. I'm so wired that I knit an entire sock toe in the near dark -- by the light of my laptop. Now I am working on the heel flap to a sock I started too long ago to be considered a part of Summer of Socks. There will, however, be pictures later of my first finished pair for SOS.

Yesterday was kind of sad. At our end-of-year meeting, the usual departures were announced including the retirement of a woman who means a whole lot to me. Ms. W (not her real initial) took me under her wing when I started teaching and educated me in what it means to be a teacher. When you look up the words "model teacher," you'll find her picture. For the lasts 35 years students have passed through her classrooms and have emerged not only with a greater understanding of Biology, but with a greater understanding of life. Her standards were high and her students lived up to them because to not do so would be wrong. She has spent her entire adult life learning and teaching and those of us who have benefited from her wisdom will miss her.

Ms. W received a standing ovation from the faculty -- one that went on and on and on. And she i s worth every clap.

6 comments:

Susan said...

Yea for the last day of school! What memories that triggers in my brain of-a-certain-age!

And how lucky you were to have such a special person in your life. I was blessed with a drama/speech teacher that did so much more than teach drama and speech. Not too long ago, I had the opportunity to tell her so. She was a teacher that could get her students to reach farther than they thought they could...and that included the students that did zilch in their other classes. She told me that in the teacher's lounge she received much kidding and such for even attempting to get some of us to participate and learn. I can only imagine what might have happened had more of them felt the same way.

Penny said...

My music teacher is a very special teacher/educator/mentor and sadly was forced out due to icky politics within a very small elementary school (she's now a minister and very happy). I am thankful that some are appreciated as all should be.

Yay for no more school!!! [I'm especially excited. :) ]

Anonymous said...

Teachers/mentors like Ms. W make a difference in many lives. I am sooo enjoying my summer days (except this humidity!) and wish you a relaxing summer too.

Anonymous said...

Glad you made it through another year. ;)

Cookie said...

Did you crash in the afternoon? Or did you make it thru in one piece?

Think of all the lives that lady touched in her years of teaching... and the ones you'll touch and make better thanks to her. *hugs*

Anne K. said...

Congrats on another year...and so many more NY kids know how to knit this year, too!

My daughter's last day of the teaching was Wednesday, too. As a first-year teacher, it was hard for her. She called me in tears after her little first-graders left at noon. "They...are...so...sweet! I...will...miss...them...so...much!" She'll have a whole new crop of 'em in September!