Title: "Mrs. Crawford Flipped Me the Bird"

An essay with this title lay on my desk Monday afternoon when I returned from break. My first, thought, "What? Did I? Could I have possibly...without knowing it?" Then I saw the author, sighed to myself, and thought, "Well... I might have... you know... scratched my nose with my middle finger... just to make a point..."

Nervously reading on, I uncovered a heartfelt reflection of her high school experience written by a student whom I will always remember fondly. A witty smart aleck. A creative soul. A lover of words. She will be a student who will always brag about how she passed my class without reading a single novel I assigned--well, all except one; one who came back to my class in years following during her study halls to listen and contribute, to bug me, to ask for essay help or recommendation letters, to help me organize or file, to just walk and talk when she was going through a rough time. I will remember her as a student who overcame adversity to achieve high academic honors, as a student who blossomed through her maturity with language, as a student who made me laugh and smile and roll my eyes and even scratch my nose with my middle finger. She graduates next Saturday and, like so many peers in her class, has the world before her. I find myself a little nostalgically jealous about that fact. She is truly going to be somebody.

It's that time of year again--the hustle and bustle of last minute grades, the influx of essays that have yet to be graded, the pressures of state and AP testing, students on the border of passing or failing. It's enough to make me want to pull my hair out.

This morning, Kris and I tucked in our 80 AP students who are taking the exam--complete with their "Good Luck" goody bags, their essay cheat sheets, their enthusiastic reminders that "All Roads Lead to TONE!" And I feel completion. Seeing each one of them arrive at the testing site gave me a feeling of pride. Watching them become Seniors will make me even prouder.

I'm thankful that even while I want to pull my hair out with all of my last-minute stressors, I feel thankful, blessed, fulfilled, content in my job. I love it.

In my last post, I wrote about how being a mother is one of the greatest blessings in my life. It is so true. I want to add that being a teacher is up there on my list as well.

(The last sentence of my student's essay read, "And as for the title, I totally deserved it.")

An essay with this title lay on my desk Monday afternoon when I returned from break. My first, thought, "What? Did I? Could I have possibly...without knowing it?" Then I saw the author, sighed to myself, and thought, "Well... I might have... you know... scratched my nose with my middle finger... just to make a point..."

Nervously reading on, I uncovered a heartfelt reflection of her high school experience written by a student whom I will always remember fondly. A witty smart aleck. A creative soul. A lover of words. She will be a student who will always brag about how she passed my class without reading a single novel I assigned--well, all except one; one who came back to my class in years following during her study halls to listen and contribute, to bug me, to ask for essay help or recommendation letters, to help me organize or file, to just walk and talk when she was going through a rough time. I will remember her as a student who overcame adversity to achieve high academic honors, as a student who blossomed through her maturity with language, as a student who made me laugh and smile and roll my eyes and even scratch my nose with my middle finger. She graduates next Saturday and, like so many peers in her class, has the world before her. I find myself a little nostalgically jealous about that fact. She is truly going to be somebody.

It's that time of year again--the hustle and bustle of last minute grades, the influx of essays that have yet to be graded, the pressures of state and AP testing, students on the border of passing or failing. It's enough to make me want to pull my hair out.

This morning, Kris and I tucked in our 80 AP students who are taking the exam--complete with their "Good Luck" goody bags, their essay cheat sheets, their enthusiastic reminders that "All Roads Lead to TONE!" And I feel completion. Seeing each one of them arrive at the testing site gave me a feeling of pride. Watching them become Seniors will make me even prouder.

I'm thankful that even while I want to pull my hair out with all of my last-minute stressors, I feel thankful, blessed, fulfilled, content in my job. I love it.

In my last post, I wrote about how being a mother is one of the greatest blessings in my life. It is so true. I want to add that being a teacher is up there on my list as well.

(The last sentence of my student's essay read, "And as for the title, I totally deserved it.")