Friday, part II

I’m ready for the end of the year now.

Our seniors graduate today. But the rest of the student body has three more days left.

Ugh.

We had our recognition assembly/senior tribute prior to lunch.

It was excellent.

A couple highlights –

Two freshmen boys were recognized for rescuing a teacher’s golden retriever from the river. Apparently, the dog was supposed to be in the garage, but as the boys were walking by the river, they say the dog out on the ice.

They called her to them, but just as she neared shore, the ice broke and she plunged in.

Her collar caught on an ice chunk and she could rest one paw on the ledge to keep her afloat.

Without thinking one boy crawled out to her to try and rescue her, but the ice he was on crumbled and he plunged in!

Quickly, his friend was able to get to him and pull them both out of the freezing water.

What a story.

The teacher wanted to recognize the boys for what they did and also to warn them.
å
“A dog can be replaced,” she said, “but you can’t be.”

Then when the friend who saved the day got to speak, he turned to his friend and said simply, “You owe me!”

Then our choir director and three of her LD students performed their annual instrumental. This has always been moving. But this performance once pheonemanal.

The two boys with whom the choir director works really got into it, banging away on their tribal drums. Her third student, a severally handicapped young lady in a wheelchair, kept the beat with a tamborine. The director played a set of bongos.

It was great.

Their second piece was even better. The boys wrote it, in fact. They donned gangster gear. Then they brought out trash cans and plopped themselves into chairs. They slouched and began tapping on the legs of their chairs. This soon led them to banging on their garbage cans. Then it really kicked into gear. It was so cool that I can hardly explain it. I only hope someone taped it and it’s on youtube. It was that good.

Then during the senior movie tribute, the channel half group (it’s part of a class where for the final 9 weeks of the school year, the kids shoot their own news show that airs once a week) had interviewed several seniors about where they’d be in ten years. We got the usual answers “married to a rich man,” “in jail,” and “dead.” However, they also interviewed a senior who has autism. He ended up giving a heart felt response to the question that went on and on and on. It is a credit to this class that they all took him seriously and no one laughed. That was classy. It was a great way to end that episode.

Prior to the recognition assembly/senior tribute, I was about to walk out of my classroom when a parent of several former students (her final one is graduating this year) popped her head in. She said that she and her children were sitting down a while ago and talking about their favorite teachers and ones who made an impact on them. She said, with tears in her eyes, that I was one of the names that came up the most often. By then I had tears in my eyes.

She paid me several excellent comments. I tried to return those compliments by telling her how she did a phenomenal job raising such excellent kids. We hugged and tried to get the tears out of our eyes.

Then she saw the principal, who was opening the door to the balcony section of the auditorium, and began to tell him all about me and my affect on her kids.

She was swept up in the moment.

That would normally be the highlight, not just of my day, but my year here.

However, the day got even better.

I received around 20 invitations to graduations this year. For each of them I typed up personal letters wishing the students well and giving them advice and stating what I will always remember about them.

While I doubt that I’ll make many graduations this year, Chelsea, Kristie’s neice, graduates this weekend and her family is up, I would really like to make it to one graduation in particular. It is for a student and former player of mine who is actually finishing up at the ALC.

While he is not a model citizen, I always enjoyed him in class because we hit it off very well. He is a straight shooter. He doesn’t play the school game and will tell it like it is. Plus, he was a hell of a writer (he is the one who wrote the essay on what he does best in which he wrote about how his father taught him how to work construction and that when he gets old he is going to live in a cement house, eat of cement plates, and have cement kids. Now that is voice!).

I waited after the senior tribute to hand out the letters. I couldn’t find Jack, but he found me. He was happy to see me and asked if I was coming to his party on Saturday. I told him that I’d try to make it, but it might not happen. Then I handed him the letter, told him that I enjoyed having him as a student, and shook his hand.

He thanked me for the letter. Then I was off to find other seniors and he was off to sign a card for a fellow graduate who is in the hospital with a broken leg.

After handing out the letters, I ran to the lunch room for a pop. As I was heading to the teachers’ lounge, I saw Jack leaning against the wall . . . reading my letter with the biggest grin on his face.

That was my highlight of the year.