The End of Year 5

Well friends, it's here. The last day of school. I am a runner, so finding parallels with running and life is in my heart (see above picture).
Through the years I've experienced the full spectrum of various emotions, sadness, excited, eager, and then this year: meh...
I know, I know, I'm weird and off, and I should feel SOMETHING--but the overriding truth of my heart/mind is "let's just be done with this year." I'm not regretful of the past year by any means, there were some excellent strides made in my classroom by me and my students. We all learned, we all grew, we were challenged, we had hiccups along the way, we bumped into each other, some of us fell down and stayed down for a while. But generally, we moved forward. I look at the Fall semester and am proud of what I accomplished in my Master's class work. I wrote the longest, probably best, paper of my life (30 pgs, 15+ references, BAM!) and really was intellectually stimulated. This spring, I mentored and experienced some significant growing pains with 2 student teachers and students in my classroom. It was challenging, and maybe the compilation of all events has lead me to be feeling a bit...tired.

You know when you were a kid and you had played really hard all day outside and you came in for dinner and you felt tired and should have stayed inside, taken a bath, and gone to bed--but you looked out your window and saw the neighborhood kids just starting a roller-hockey game on your street, and you looked on longing to be a part of the game, and convinced your parents that you weren't tired, and then bolted to play when you should have rested? (How's that run-on sentence my English-teaching friends?!) Yeah, that's kinda how I feel after the roller-hockey game...overly tired. Like, when you know that a mere nap simply won't suffice, your fatigue reaches deep and pulls at your neurons and dendrites and challenges your synaptic connections in your brain, sentences don't come out right...can't think clearly...desperately in need of rest.

That's me. AND, I believe it's the student's this time of year, and every other teacher crossing the finish line right about now. So, this week, I'm going to begin to attempt to unwind and try to figure out how to do that. Maybe raise my glass and sip a cold one...that'll be a good start.

If you have any suggestions, I'm all ears;) Happy Finishing!

Shelb