The Last Day of School

The 2005-2006 school year has closed. The inaugural year of teaching is over.

To sum it up in one word: disappointing. I personally do not think that it was quite the year that I was expecting. Part of the blame falls on myself, adjusting to the new surroundings and dealing with the every-day situations that teachers usually encounter.

Also, the blame falls on the school -- the lack of necessary resources needed to provide good instructional lessons. I'm still dealing with the old "paper-based" lessons which usually doesn't work in today's technological age. Students, in my experience and opinion, learn best my watching, not reading.

To help remedy the situation, I'm actually learning more material that I can hopefully use in my future classes. For example, in my Web Site Design class, I basically used Microsoft FrontPage to teach my students the basics of Web page design. That's how basic it got, but I was always faced with questions about how to do more advanced things, like Java or Flash, that students are always keen to notice as they browse through the Internet. My answer: unless you know Java, Flash, or HTML for that matter, FrontPage really doesn't help.

I've already purchased instructional books on Flash and Dreamweaver. This summer, I should hopefully become a master at those two programs, then I can also finally get around in creating my own school Web page.

I also wanted to "get it in the ass," so to speak, in making my room more comfortable to my standards. I had planned on re-arranging my tables, doing some re-wiring of the network cables, plus the requisition of an air projector and pull-down screen. For those requisitions, I was looking at a $2,000 request. Unfortunately, I was denied this year, due to the massive budget cuts that the school district endured this year. It was worth a shot, but at the same time disappointing to resort to the old ways of doing things.

The students finished out the year with half-days, both on Thursday and today. Although the students are officially done for the year, teachers and staff are obligated to return to school next week for In-Service days, Monday through Wednesday. Mainly it's meetings between the departments and such, and the rest of the days are spent in the rooms, finishing up last-minute work and getting ready for check-out.

Camera bulbs flashed from the high schoolers, pens and markers were waved from the middle schoolers for anybody who wanted to sign their shirts. A successful Last Day, considering that there was absolutely nothing to do.

But due to changes in my curriculum next year, I may be going back to actual school this summer to get my vocational license. The only other person who had the vocational license at school was our old ag teacher, but he passed away this year. Without that vocational license, we cannot get any grant money. The administration has placed the responsibility of getting that taken care of upon my shoulders. At least the district is going to pay for it!

After the In-Service days, there is absolutely nothing for me planned for the summer until the last few days of August when we all start to prepare for the 2006-2007 school year.