Graduation week

For anyone who deals with Seniors, Graduation week is a mix of stress and emotions. Seniors are scrambling all week to make sure their Finals are done, missing books or equipment are returned, and all of the proper good byes they wish to say have been said. You also have the pageantry of Graduation with marching practice, Senior Assembly, and Class Night. Luckily I am not a Senior Advisor this year and so much of this is diminished this year, but either way, it's a bit stressful.

Seniors presented their Ethics And Psycholgy Finals this week, which is always interesting for me! Its always nice to see students analyze current ethical dilemmas using some of the paradigms and analysis tools we practiced during the year. I always learn a few things I hadn't learned before. In Psycholgy we had presentations on Autism, Narccissism,  PTSD, OCD, and more. The presentations were very professional and engaging. I think it helps that these are real issues that most students are interested in and many have experience in dealing with.

The Seniors voted me as one of the Class Marshals who leads the Marching at Graduation. This is my third time doing it but its always an honor that I much appreciate and look forward to whenever I am asked. Though I'm lacking in rhythm completely, I am ironically leading the marching to "Pomp and Circumstance" along with a colleague of mine who has way more rhythm than I do! I plan to watch her our of the corner of my eye in order to keep the beat.

(This is a random stranger, but it is a Class Marshal doing exactly what I will be doing!)

On Friday the annual Senior Assembly was held. This includes Awards presentations, and I always look forward to this opportunity to recognize a few key Seniors in particular who were especially interested in Social Studies. I have a tradition of awarding a few Seniors with Awards named after famous people in history. The student who receives the award exhibited at least a few of the qualities exhibited by the historical figure the award is named for. For example, Teddy Roosevelt is one of my favorites in history and so I always give a "Theodore Roosevelt Award" to someone who showed some of the same passions and interests as he did. We also give a Book Award from the whole Social Studies Department to a Senior who was the most passionate and successful in Social Studies during their whole High School career. It's often hard to pick just one, but its nice to recognize these students!

(example of one of several awards I give out to Seniors)

The underclassmen still have 7 school days after the Seniors graduate, and so in U.S. history students put the finishing touches on their Native American Civil Rights presentations. Next week they have their Finals!

We had out last Department meeting of the year this week. There are so many things we are working on for next year! Those who teach 9th grade are working with other 9th grade teachers across Departments in order to ensure that Common Core and Content Standards will be met. Next year's 9th graders will be the first to graduate with a Proficiency Based Diploma. Part of the stress of this is that there are still many unanswered questions about this we need to find answers to. But we move forward as best we can. One of my colleagues in my Department is headed to Salt Lake City next week to read the AP World History Exam essays. At the end of the month, two of us in the Department are going to California as part of the NEH Landmarks of American History program. We also discussed the NCSS Conference to be held in Boston next Fall. Because I am presenting, my registration is paid for by the Newseum, but I still have hotel to pay for myself. In addition, my colleagues would have to pay for their own registrations. I hope we can find a way for everyone to attend, but I have my doubts. We also discussed the budget, which is quite lean. We are getting no books, fewer supplies, and no Professional Development money next year. This is all assuming the Budget passes the community vote next week. If it does not, there may be even more cut.

Sunday is Graduation day, and next week we have Advisee Day out and the start of finals for the underclassmen. I have 9th grade Advisees and 4 groups of 9th graders are all headed to the Big Adventure to have access to mini golf, laser tag, rock climbing, and bowling. We will also have a Barbecue while we are there. It's a nice way to end the year with our Advisees while the Senior Advisors sleep after being up all night with the Seniors on Project Graduation. The last 5 days of the year are half days for students with Finals in the morning. Teachers have time in the afternoon to grade the Finals. There will be plenty of other things to do to end the year as well! This includes awards for underclassmen, and a retirement celebration for 3 Staff members who are retiring. When June 18th comes around, I will be ready for a vacation!