The Final Friday

Hard to believe but the 2012-2013 school year is almost a memory.  Today marks the final time we rejoice as all teachers do that it is Friday.    The end of school is a time of great change.  A chance to take stock of what you have and have not accomplished during the year.  F It is the time of year we usually finally get a contract from the division with numbers on it and maybe two days to think before signing it.  It is also the time we bid goodbye to a group of young people we've come to know pretty  well ovet the last 9 months.  Bittersweet. Indeed.  But that's the job.

What else is bittersweet besides the last Friday of the school year?  Glad you asked.

Cicadas

See that sad look?

But this is just gross. 

We all waited for 17 years for this brood to emerge and at least at my house, they did not disappoint.  Their collective call is almost indescribable and one I am glad I was able to experience again.  Their sound and numbers are simply staggering.   Think of how different the world is from when they entered the soil, and how different it will be when their descendents re-emerge.   Now, having lived out those precious few weeks they waited so patiently for, they seem resigned to their fate. Though their red eyes appear unchanged,  a closer glance reveals an all knowing expression and a dignity not there before, one awaiting their end.  As the numbers who have expired on my driveway continue to grow, it is sad.  Or bittersweet, so I am told. 

The One Year Anniversary of This
Teresa Sullivan Looks back.  Bittersweet cause the same issues are still very much present.  Our crack team of reporters was on the frontlines last year, some even credit us with her re-instatement.  But those people are idiots.    NBC29 WVIR Charlottesville, VA News, Sports and Weather



The Fizzle of School
 Once AP Tests, SOLs and Graduation arrive...school just kind of fizzles out.  Like cheap firework.   It's go -go- go- fizzle.  How unfortunate it is that the days of engaging and interesting activities serving to tie everything together have been undermined by all the crap we have railed against on this blog.    Also it is bittersweet because we all get burned out by the hectic push to the end, only to have the end not live up to the billing. I guess it is about the journey not the destination.  Kind of how the other days of the week being what makes Fridays so special. 








Departing Retiring
We are saying goodbye several great faculty member.  We do so at a seemingly ever increasing pace.  We are so jealous....I mean happy, yeah...happy for them but will miss them.   Well, most of them if we were being honest.  Some are retiring, some moving to other teaching jobs or schools and some just getting out of the game.  As they leave us behind and go on to other things it goes without saying.  It is Bittersweet.  

Notes from Kids
There are still a few student who take the time to write a little thank you.  Some of these students even mean it.  I got one this year from a student who hasn't been at our school for two years.  That goes a long way.  The bittersweet part is that these grow increasingly rare.


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So it the final Friday.  It is not over.  But we are close. 


This song is so Bittersweet. :)