Enfin, la fin!

At last, the end!

J'ai oublie trop de francais; donc il n'ya pas beaucoup je peux ecrire ici. Mais aujourd'hui, c'est la dernier jour d'ecole! Je suis tres heureuse et pourtant, je suis peur d'ennui de l'ete.

I have forgotten too much French; alas, there's not much I can write here. But today is the last day of school! I am very happy and yet, I fear the boredom of summer.

It is such a relief for this year to be over. That one class fairly ruined my experience this year; the last few months have felt like a daily battle. Or at least I lived in anxiety of a possible battle, which is just as bad.

Thanks be to the school gods, I did not have to see that class today. Except, amazingly, for most of the students who had borrowed books many moons ago either returned them or paid for them (I make them pay $5 and then I will use that for buying new books for the class, as well as to make them accountable).

I saw the good class today. We played some games and they goofed around. Some of the boys were interested in watching Indiana Jones. I also visited the afternoon class, the sweet but low and noisy bunch. I took pictures of both classes and generally there was no point to today.

Some of the students did give me hugs. One of my favorite girls from the afternoon class gave me a big hug and said, "Aw, I'll miss you a lot!" I said, "I'll miss you too!" This one boy came to say goodbye, a kid who switched from the bad class to the afternoon class, a kid who can be sweet but too often falls into the the badboy attitudes, yet when I scold him he gives a big grin and says, "I love you, miss!" Even some of the sweeter kids from the bad class said an excited goodbye with hugs before leaving, which was a nice way to leave it. A few of our favorite girls from last year came to visit and say hi/bye too.

I did not cry this year. Of course, I am still in denial/surprise/shock that the year is over, so it's possible that later I may shed some tears of happiness. But last year, I had a good year and a lot of really wonderful kids. This year, I had a tough year and not as many wonderful kids. More pain in my ass kids and more crazy parents, more unreachable parents, and, it felt like, more unreachable students. The year ends with me feeling unsure of my management, not to mention frazzled and afraid for next year, when the level of kids will go down (according to test score, at least)(this year I had one real high level class and one class that was supposed to be high level, but oh my GOD there is no way)(next year I will have some resource-level classes, oh my goodness).

Anyway, back to the here and now. After the kids were all gone, Mr Principal announced and awarded those who are leaving and/or retiring, as well as those of us who earned our tenure. There was a catered lunch after that, but I didn't stay. There are lots of friendly people on the staff, but for some reason, I never have a real place to sit with friends. So instead of feeling lonely and/or headbutting into other people's conversations, I said quick goodbyes to a few people and took off.

Oh, and then I went to the DMV and registered my car! It went quickly and easily, and I got new plates right on the spot. Sweet! Now I just need to get the car inspected, which I'll do tomorrow, and I'm all set.

So now I'm an official New York resident, an official New York driver, and an officially certified and tenured New York City teacher.

I sound way too much like a grown up.

Um, PS? This thunder keeps suddenly cracking REALLY loudly RIGHT over my head and startling the crap out of me. How's that for grown up?