Next to Last Day of Student Teaching. . .

I have mixed emotions about tomorrow being my last day at student teaching. I am glad it's over so I can get my sh!te together again in my personal life, but I am going to miss those little buggers at City High School. I gave my good-bye note cards, which were personalized to each student, to my 6th block (my favorite class) today. I truly am going to be sad not to see those kids. I checked the desks after they left today, and didn't find any of the cards shoved in there, but I forgot to check the big garbage can by the door! My son asked me about that one! I'm sure some ended up there, but I think most of them appreciated the gesture.

I am taking up their Road projects tomorrow, and I hope I see some good thinking there as I grade them this weekend. It would be best that I use that project as my ISLA (Individual Student Learning Assessment) paper, but I am not sure I'm going to have time to do that because I had to change schools and do this extra week of student teaching. I also have to still do that monotonous, repetitive C.P.I. document—but don't even get me started on the BS that comes with cranking out some of that drivel they have us do in the education program at my university. Oops— I'm starting to sound cranky now.

At this point though, I know I've let things slip in the rest of my life since student teaching takes up every bit of one's life. This semester I allowed my checking account to get overdrawn, had my water shut off for non-payment (not paying attention to due dates because of student teaching), and spent too much money on taking my own children to restaurants so that they could eat because I was too exhausted to cook when I got home. And, even though no one's been in the kitchen for the last two months, we are battling an infestation of field mice. Oh, and then there's the overdue ad valorem bill on my car tag. So I've got a lot to do over Winter Break.

To add insult to injury, today I got an email from my university's teacher certification officer that said she can't find my GACE Basic scores (Praxis I everywhere else in the country) in my file, although I provided them to the teacher education program two years ago. Now I have to contact the SAT College Board, pay $33, and wait a month to get my 1981 SAT scores so I can get certified. This must be done even though I will have two undergrad degrees, and am simultaneously enrolled in a graduate program at this same university. Whatever. What must be done, must be done. Boy, I am cranky today. I think, though, that I'm really just frakkin' tired. As much as I will miss most of the students, it's probably time for me to exit, stage left.