School Carnival, "Summertime," and Some Thoughts

4/28/09 We had our School Carnival on Monday. I was stressed at first, mostly because my sophomores had only blearily looked at me when I tried to talk about it during school the week before, and none of them had returned the letters I supposedly sent to the parents (which I don't know if they ever arrived or not; my students aren't the most reliable postal service). But we set up our "Hit the Cans" game, and we eventually raked in about $74 worth of tickets and ran out of prizes at about 1:30 PM. The school, overall, made about fifteen hundred dollars for the PTA, partially because we held the carnival on a Monday after Kwaj payday. If I can, I will post some Carnival pictures.

The kids have already switched into summer mode, and the juniors have gotten into the annoying habit of asking me in a sing-song voice, "What time is it?" like they were the lead characters of High School Musical 2. Argh. I just smile, laugh, and tell that it's not summertime (since the reply in the song is "It's summertime."). They think that's hilariously funny, when I answer like that. The seniors have a bad case of senioritis, and we teachers have to keep reminding them that this is not the time to start slacking off and not turning in work--they don't want to end up in summer school if they fail.

I write this the day before it officially becomes one month before I leave (it won't hit four weeks until May 2), and it's hard to believe that I'm already near the end of my year on Ebeye. Well, it's not a complete year, but it's close enough. We're finishing up midterm report cards and plugging through our last twelve days of classes. (I wonder if there's a song about that.) Twelve. You read me correctly. We have twelve days of class left, then two days of finals. Then a week in which to clean up the classroom, return books to the book room, and draw up grades--then graduation. Two days after graduation, I get on the noon boat, ferry over to Kwaj, and check into the airport. Everything we're doing is sliding toward the end, and I feel as if I have a lot more left that I could do. I have done my best, but still. I know that I was supposed to be here this year, and I am glad of it.

More later.