8 Down, 22 to Go!

Well, there's another year down the hole. This was a tough one. I can't really put my finger on what was so awful about it, but EVERY teacher I spoke to throughout the year agreed with me: this past year just sucked.

So, first things first: all that work I did on my room at the beginning of the year? And all the work I've done over the last 8 years? It's been razed to ground zero, almost literally.


This was my room right before I checked out of school for the year. By now, they'll have completely emptied it--all the computers went to some secure (and hopefully air conditioned) storage facility, and everything else unceremoniously dumped in the gym or the cafeteria:


So basically, what's happening is my school is being remodeled. They tore out four classrooms at the front of the school and are turning them into the new offices (main, attendance, counseling, psychologist, police officer, etc). They had to build onto the front of the school a little for that, too. I didn't get a picture of it, but it looks weirdly modern for a school that was built in the 80's. Whatever. Then the current offices will be turned into classrooms. As for the rest of the school, they'll be tearing out the ceilings and lighting and replacing it with LED lights and hopefully new ceiling tiles (they are full of holes from kids throwing their pencils into them). Thus, the systematic emptying of all our classrooms. A moving company was hired to lug all our stuff down to the cafe/gym, and they started on the front end of the building on Thursday and slowly moved through the school, like some kind of natural disaster. I'm on the exact opposite end of the building, so I am (was) last.


Here's the kitchen, after it was emptied. My friend the foods teacher said she filled 52 boxes, and also had a few locks installed on some of her cupboards for storage. She also put paper over the cupboards and taped up the seams to try and keep dust out...we're going to have a heck of a time cleaning once all this madness is done. I've been working on packing and labeling my room ever since 4th quarter started, so I was in pretty good shape. I have a whopping 5 extra rooms tacked onto my classroom (closets, my "shop", my office), so I likely would have filled as many boxes as my friend, but luckily I was able to borrow some locks from PE and lock up supplies in about 40 of the lockers located throughout my rooms. I also loaded up 3 big rolling cupboards and packed 25-ish boxes. And typing this now, I'm remembering things I still forgot to do before I left. The last couple of months have been so stressful and ridiculous that I just can't seem to care.

So anyway, here are some highlights from my school year:

• I taught 2 new classes: Exploring Computer Science and College and Career Awareness. ECS went pretty well. There are some lessons in that class that I just can't connect to, but once we got to actual programming part of the class, I was in heaven. And I feel like the majority of the students did fairly well! CCA replaced the 7th grade class I normally teach, CTE Intro. The class is a full year and covers about 8 career areas. The four teachers who teach the class split up the curriculum, and we teach it for 1 quarter and then rotate classes. So my topics were IT and Tech/Engineering. Some of the curriculum was good, most of it not. I did a lot of panicking, adapting on the fly, and, in some cases, trashing lessons. I had to fall back on my old curriculum occasionally. Which I wasn't supposed to do, so shh!
• I was one of the teachers in charge of MESA (Math Engineering Science Achievement) this year, along with an awesome Math teacher that I really admire. It's a club that is supposed to get more girls and minorities into math, science and engineering. We had an after-school activity once a month, went on a field trip, and had to run a booth at STEM Night. I assumed that the kids who came to our MESA activities would be cream-of-the-crop--smart, focused, etc. And that was true for a VERY small percentage of the kids. So after a first disastrous activity in which we tried to make geodesic domes (by the end NO ONE had managed to make a dome. A few teams of students had managed to make cubes, though), I learned that the activities have to be flashy and but stupidly simple. Like making slime, or fake snow. We made water bottle divers, and that turned out pretty good. For STEM Night, we just took six of my hydraulic robots and let people play with them. It was a big hit, and a great opportunity for me to show off how awesome my program is. :P
• Despite the fact that my program is awesome, my enrollment is down for next year. I lost a section of my 8th grade class, AND a section of my 9th Grade engineering class. I'm teaching STUDY HALL instead. STUDY HALL. For 7th graders, who signed up for that class very likely because they would like to do nothing. They probably think they'll get to play on their phones all the time. Can't wait to introduce them to the phone jail!
• And just in case you haven't done the math...I'm teaching 5 different classes next year. FIVE.
• The company that I bought my 3D printer from went out of business, right after I sent in the motherboard of one of my printers for repairs. Soooo...I never got it back. I was down to one working printer, and it started having some issues with the extruder. When I went to order a new extruder, that's when I discovered the company was toast. Between my 2 busted printers, I was able to get the parts to get one of them working. After a while, however, the printer started exhibiting the same problems that caused me to send in its motherboard in the first place. After many many hours of troubleshooting and goggling and 5 hours of work on a Saturday, I finally discovered that the extruder motor had a bad wire connection. Used some electrical tape to hold the wires in place to get through the last couple weeks of school, and then I'm going to attempt to find and install a new motor over the summer (maybe). And I'm buying a Makerbot for next year. @)*$&#)

So that's all I have to say about school. Good riddance, ye horrific year. I'm ready for my recovery period.

Speaking of, I have very solid plans for this summer. In fact, it's pretty much booked up until school starts again in August. I've already been camping once, with my friend Kelsey. She has some property she camps on with her dogs--we went last year too. This time, we found a couple of cool old things to put in the pictures:


I didn't have the energy for star trails or panoramas, so we just have good old Milky Way shots. I never get sick of those. I was already sleep deprived when we went camping (basically right after school got out--I squeezed in a "nap" before hand), and then when I got home I was even more sleep deprived...so I was half asleep when I process my photos in Photoshop, and I'm probably going to work on them some more. Still, happy. The cabin in some of those shots had a collapsed roof and it was behind a fence, otherwise I would've gone closer. Kind of wish I'd been brave enough to hop the fence--my lens for night photography is mega-wide angle and doesn't zoom, so the cabin looks extra small and far away. It was a really cool and eerie cabin!

Sometime in the next 2 weeks I'll be moving, hopefully for the last time for a while. I'm buying a condo! The appraisal was done last week, so all I have to do now is wait for my loan officer to process the loan and sign. Crossing my fingers that goes quickly. As soon as I have a key, I'll be dragging my little twin mattress over there to sleep. I have SO many plans for this place, and I'm going to live close to everything I love. Like, within walking distance to both See's AND Sweet Tooth Fairy. I'm going to have to work out a system so my eating habits don't go down the drain...like, I can have a cupcake, but only if I walk to the store to get it. :D

The Big Move will take up a lot of June, but I'm planning on hanging out in Logan for the in-between times. Go camping with Dad and take more night pictures. Go to Summerfest and buy something pretty for my new home. Drag Mom to see the new Captain America movie. Maybe help Dad with his house. Make lots of yummy food. The usual.

Most of July will be spent visiting literally ALL the time zones in continental US, besides the one I live in. First stop is Christie & Greg, then to Mike & Lina, and finally to Katie & Ben. I'm going to help Katie drive back to UT, and I can't wait to take her and the kids to Sweet Tooth Fairy. Hopefully Shelley will be able to fly in for a little while too. Summer is the best!!