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.
