End of School Year Freak-Outs

It is rare in this blog that I will admonish parents but, here goes. We all (yes, me included) must remember that the end of the school year is not a gentle fairy-dance into a lovely, long summer. For teachers and admin, it is a screaming, dusty, sweaty slide into home with your pants torn at the knee and half of your elbow skin left at third base. It is ugly. Getting final projects done, grading completed and reports into the computer is enough to make you crazy but then you add the "Leap into Summer" concert, the Color-Wars sports event, the Community Picnic, PK Moving-UP ceremony for the 4-year-olds, transfer reports for students leaving, cleaning the desks and walls and sorting the lost-and-found baskets, writing letters of recommendations for adolescent summer-job seekers, and providing the data report for the district standards.... it's FREAK-OUT time and summer seems a looooooong way off.

Please be patient and communicate with an extra dose of caring.

Repeat to yourself:

We are all on the same team.

We are all on the same team.

We are all on the same team.

Offer to help out -- clearing a bulletin board, sorting school supplies, packing up a classroom library, bringing in a snack or a coffee, being a guest reader...

At the very least, offer a smile and "is this a good time to talk" before initiating a discussion about Shooshie's advanced abilities and your interest in moving her up a grade. Not that we don't care about Shooshie right now it's just that we are trying to get through each day, one at a time, and we are precariously perched between insanity and summer. Finally, keep in mind that the admin isn't likely to say more than "we'll keep that in mind" if you have any ideas for the next year. Have the conversation, certainly, but don't expect a huge response.

In the end, insanity will not win. Summer will arrive, we'll be sitting on the deck soon, and tempers will chill along with the lemonade.

Until next time (and after I get my office cleaned out)

Daisy