Heck Week

With the Downtown Youth Theater, there is something we call Heck Week.  It is the week directly preceding a production performance weekend.  Rehearsals every day, long hours, TV dinners because you have to eat and run and constant fast food is just not pleasant after a while, late bed times and early rising every day.  There is a buildup of many emotions.  Frustration, excitement, craziness, confusion, anger, happiness, and even satisfaction in there somewhere, among other things.  At the end, every single time, there is a collection of performances that the audience absolutely loves.  There is always a feeling of success, wrapped up in a feeling of joy for contribution to the cause of touching the lives of others.  There is celebration and fellowship completely filled with happy faces in everyone, even the people in the background, like the lights crew and the sound system crew.  Immediately after that, dedication shines through in a handful of people, as sets are torn down, props are packed up, and costumes are collected and taken care of.  This handful of people get remembered the most, whether they had starring roles in the production or not. 

After that, everyone crashes.  They sleep and sleep and sleep.  It is good sleep, because the buildup of stressors has been relieved through their closure.  It is done.  Finished.  Everyone can breathe now.

The last official week of school is like this, especially in my classroom.  It started with a stressor of my kids being displaced, because my classroom, room 10, was still being painted so we had to move to another room.  One of our teachers had to move in the middle of the fall semester, so her kids were distributed to the other classes in the grade level and her classroom has been unused.  This is room 13.  So, that is where we were on Monday.  Mr. Green told me that one of the portables had flooded over the weekend due to the stream of storms, and, if possible, he needed me to move back into my classroom by Wednesday.  I thought, well, Ian and Daegorin both have a violin concert Monday night, I have report cards to fill out and sign, I have office folders to finalize for next year, I have a classroom full of boxes, furniture, and paint buckets, I have homework to be getting to for my own schooling, and, by the way, I have a class of five year olds going a bit crazy by being out of place, but I will figure it out.  Business hours on Monday were fine.  The violin concerts were amazing.  The report cards printed with no trouble.  The office folders had to wait.  Monday night, I slept extremely well until about one in the morning.  I knew my son had another concert on Tuesday night, but I imagined handling it during the day on Tuesday with the kids.  I saw nothing but stressful chaos. 

I told myself I was over thinking it, and tried to get back to sleep.  My eyes opened again, and I thought, what if I just went ahead now and took care of it?  I have a little over four hours until I need to officially wake up, and I simply cannot sleep right now.

I got myself to the school.  My room was finished and the paint was dry.  Time for business.  I moved boxes, furniture, paint buckets, tarps, ladders, and priorities.  I knew I needed sleep, but I could not seem to care about that enough while looking at the progress I was making.  By four in the morning, my classroom was mostly ready to receive a class of students.  I imagined that my students could help us move back in fairly easily now.  I went home, and took a nap.  Slept GREAT.  Woke up in two hours, went to work, and looked forward to my day.  I knew we were not told we needed to move back to room 10 until Wednesday, but I thought there would be no harm in beginning to move back in the morning.  The students each brought their supply boxes, desk drawer that they borrowed, journals, letter tiles, and counting collections, while staying in line, back to room 10.  They loaded up their desks, we read a story, and then we headed back to room 13.  When we got there, the students in the portable that had flooded were already in place and ready to go, as if they were watching us move out so they could move in. 

What if I did not come in overnight and spend three hours getting the classroom ready? 

Anyway.  I took my students to the pre-school graduation going on instead of heading back to room 10.  Those little ones did a wonderful job with their program, and watching them receive their diplomas was very special.  When we went back to room 10, the students asked if we were having a graduation. 

When they asked this, I had the quickest train of thought.  I knew that administrators for my school district have a philosophy that when kids graduate from pre-school, they are making a true transition into public school, but when they finish kindergarten, they are already there.  They do not see a need for a kindergarten graduation.  I disagree.  Over half of my class did not go to pre school, and kindergarten is not required by law.  They are making a transition into legally required schooling in first grade, and I felt that they needed a ceremony.  I quickly considered my week, and told them that yes, we will have a graduation in room 10.  I felt a burning desire in me to do something very special with my class.  They have held through this year and really shown amazing growth, and in this strange time of packing and transitioning classrooms during the paint job extravaganza.  They deserve a graduation.

So, Tuesday business hours were fine.  I even managed to conduct one of my interviews for my class field observation project.  The concert, again, was lovely.  I slept straight through the night.

Wednesday came and we were in room 10 filling up the hours with classroom clean up.  They read their book collections, stringed their counting collections beads on a string, worked in their journals, and filled in their remaining math book pages.  I spent that time thinking.  I began plotting a successful graduation ceremony on Friday.  I sent home a flier that I made during lunch inviting parents to the event, I grabbed my stack of special awards that I had bought years ago and had several left over to take home and fill out, and I put their portfolios in a cart to take home and finalize.  We also practiced some songs that we had been singing all year in math and reading, and made plans to do a small program for the parents on Friday in the classroom.  We even practiced staging it. 

During lunch, I knew I loved Wednesdays because I do not have lunch or recess duty.  I had forty five minutes at my disposal.  That is not right.  Forty five minutes?  Nothing to do but eat?  Really?

FOLDERS.  I remembered that the office kindergarten folders needed to be filled out.  So I took care of that while I ate my lunch.

I got back on track of a lot of things, actually, while I did that.  During my conference period, I remembered I had scheduled an observation with a first grade teacher as part of my field observation project for my class.  In the middle of all this other work, I actually remembered the observation.  I even remembered the interview we had arranged immediately after school that afternoon.  I was on it. 

Wednesday business hours were very productive.  In the evening I knew Ian had youth group.  This could be viewed as a gift of time, so I brought my computer with me and sat in the car working on photos for the portfolios while he did his youth group meeting.  I actually got a lot done. I slept like a baby Wednesday night.

Thursday came.  The day was spent cleaning and cleaning and cleaning.  The students shaving creamed their desks, which I made sure to get pictures of, baby wiped the floor and furniture, baggied their markers and journals, and practiced, practiced, practiced their program for the special event I had arranged in my class.  They even made props for one of the songs.  They kept telling me their parents were coming.  I can tell when my students are being dictators of their parents and not making up those conversations.  They meant it.

Thursday night, I was in my car headed home ready to finalize portfolios, fill out and laminate diplomas, and fill out special awards.  I knew that the portfolios, while being mostly ready with work and crafts already, were going to take a while with the photos.  Each kid had at least 13 pages of photos collected over the year, even with there being two photos on each page.  I would print the document I created the photo pages on, put the pages in document protectors, and put them in the portfolio binders.  Sounds simple, but I knew it would be time consuming, and I knew I needed ink for my printer.  I went shopping, got ink, and while I was at it I grabbed large sacks for the students to put their school supplies in, decorations for the ceremony, and a large tub of cotton candy for myself.  Just because.

I had a quick realization that I have no adult sized chairs in my classroom.  I remembered that at my house, we have 10 foldable chairs that we were asked to hold onto for the Downtown Youth Theater.  I would need to bring those chairs, because all of the other chairs at my work are being borrowed already.  The chairs I had also had comfy cushions on them.  Then, between the store and my house, I told myself out loud that I was about to pull an all nighter.  This was going to take all night.

As soon as I got home, I remembered that Daegorin had a percussion lesson and Ian had a wildlife group gathering.  It is a good thing I enjoy doing this stuff, because I would have been miserable.  I dropped off Ian, dropped off Daegorin, dropped off the chairs, picked up Daegorin, and picked up Ian.  I said good bye to an hour in an already packed night.  Fine.  Like I said, I enjoy this stuff, so there.

I had so much fun printing the photos, laminating the diplomas, filling out awards, and eating cotton candy that I did not even realize it was four thirty in the morning by the time I got done.  I thought, four thirty?  Awesome.  I can take a nap.

I did.  Then Friday business hours came.  The first thing that happened when I got to work is my cart of portfolios fell over.

Nothing was damaged or out of place inside the portfolios, but I did have to stop and tell myself this is NOT GOING TO BE an indicator of what kind of day I am going to have.  I said I will have a good day.  Things will be fine.  This was just this.

As soon as I got in the building, Mrs. Johnson, the secretary, asked me if those things I was messing with in the parking lot were those things I make for my students every year.  I told her they were, and she said she LOVES those things.  She has had parents of students in my class come in and ask if she could convince me to make others for their other children. 

Ok.  Verification.  I am not wasting my time.

The kids were very attentive, but a little wild and needed redirecting many times.  We managed to clean up and decorate the classroom, set up the chairs, decorate and stuff large sacks with all the school supplies, and finalize our little program, which was SO CUTE.  I am glad we did that, because fourteen students worth of parents showed up, which made me very happy.  They only found out about it on Wednesday. 

For the program, the students sang a song called The Big Numbers Song, which is available on Youtube, where they start out counting by ones.  This is when they transition to the tile part of my class, also known as the stage area.  After counting to 100, they count by multiplying by tens, by saying one hundred, one thousand, ten thousand, one hundred thousand, one million!  And they keep going all the way to one trillion, and then they just sing the word numbers over and over.  After that song they did a song called Counting by Twos, Fives, and Tens, also on Youtube, which is done to a beat a lot like the soundtrack to Cops.  It starts off saying hey now kids, whatcha gonna do?  Whatcha gonna do is to count by twos!  They count by twos all the way to thirty.  Then they do whatcha gonna try is count by fives, and they go all the way to 100, then they do what is at the end is to count by tens. It is adorable, because those six year olds know how to make those serious facial expressions, and dance off beat to the music, and even cross their arms at the right time.  After that they held up the giant letters they had made and sang Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Sugacube, also on Youtube, with lyrics completely from the famous alphabet book.  At the part when all the letters fell off the coconut tree, all the kids fell on the floor.  At the part at the end when the kids sing about all the letters going on up to the coconut tree over and over, they transitioned in beat back to their desks.  It was SO CUTE!!!  I even stood there with my Ipad recording what I could.  Parents had their cell phones out recording things, and they were smiling and really enjoying it.  I felt that excitement and joy building up.

Then one by one I called students up to receive their diplomas, certificates, and portfolios.

After that the parents looked through the portfolios with their students.  I wanted to cry.  It was so beautiful.

After that the students each grabbed their large sack and back pack.  The parents all expressed gratitude to me.  Three of them were crying happy tears.  The students all insisted on getting a hug from me before they left.  Parents took pictures of their child with me.  I CRIED a little.  I cannot think why, I mean I was very emotional and extremely sleep deprived, I mean, tears?  Really?

Sarcasm.

After the majority of my class had left, I still had five students.  They were AWESOME.  They each grabbed two fold up chairs and walked them to my car.  They took down the decorations and wiped down my desks and tables one last time.  They cleaned up the stage area.  I gave them a snack, and then it was time for them to go to the bus room.

All the cubbies and desks had been emptied, and my carpet was completely bare, aside from the desks.  So there I was, sitting in a clean and empty class, and watching what I got recorded on my Ipad.  The teacher next door stopped in on her way down the hall.  She did not say much, just three words.

Good job, Mrs. Perez.

Then she walked on. 

I got home at half past four.

I slept until six, had some dinner, cleaned up, then slept until nine.

I went to bed.

I slept until the next morning.  It is done.  Finished.  I can breathe now.

Little problem solvers

So, my principal makes the grand announcement that we have painters contracted to paint the insides of the  classrooms during the school year.  We were originally told to simply have the items removed from our bookcases, cupboards, and walls, and have them placed on desk and table tops and covered, as preparation for the painters.  Oh, and by the way, our students have to be temporarily relocated to a completely new set of walls for three days when it is our classroom's turn.


I am the third classroom in line for the big job.  I should mention that they are also squeezing in painting the outside walls to the entire school during days of good weather.  As a result it is actually taking them somewhere between four and five days per classroom. 

I did the math.  At three days minimum per classroom with no interruptions, that puts them painting my class sometime within the last two weeks of school.  We were told if the paint job carries over into the summer, we will be required to box up our items, rather than simply covering them up.  I remember a time when this was a requirement anyway, so I had a plan in place.

I would buy boxes and organize a game plan to get my students directly involved in the packing process. Today, I laid an unfolded box on each student's desk.  We watched  video about three dimensional shapes, and the students were more than thrilled to be making large cubes all by themselves.  They made the boxes, folded them over, taped them, and managed to help me pack eleven boxes worth of hands on manipulatives and books in one day.

The packing was impressive, the box building was cute, and the progress on the daunting job of packing eleven years worth of STUFF was exciting, but I was so surprised at how well they worked together.  They took the initiative, cooperated voluntarily, and found solutions to problems with almost no need for my intervention.  Now if only adults could figure this out!

Where it comes from

I have always grown most through interaction with my coworkers, family, and students.  Just a few weeks ago, I had been dealing with some circumstances at the house that were fairly stressful, and my students and coworkers could tell.  My coworkers are also dealing with stressful situations, and my family is the stressful situation.  My students were brilliant; they knew exactly where my coffee mug was, where my box of tissue was, how to make me smile against my will, and how to show their learning and growth at exactly the right time.

They remind me every day why I chose this field.  They are the future.  Without them, all that is here in this world has little purpose.  My students verify to me in my depths of pathetic depression and despair that I am here for a reason as well, and that I am "the bestest teacher ever" from time to time.