#edublr

The seniors came in this morning in their caps and gowns to board the buses and do the "Senior Walk" through the elementary school they once attended. It's a great tradition, and I was happy to see a bunch of my students before they headed off.

I was actually able to teach Global Studies in my classroom before the humidity crept up to an unbearable level. I taught APGOV in the auditorium. It wasn't great- too many classes there today- but I at least managed to keep mine separate from the other students, up in the corner (that took doing; kids from other classes kept trying to sit with my class, and I kept telling them to go back to their own part of the room). Did they get a lot of work done, though? Not really. But I suspect they'll feel the time crunch and lock in next week.

There was a crazy thunderstorm overnight, and it caused a ton of flooding. It even washed out a chunk of one of the major state roads. So there were whole towns that were unable to get buses through, and a lot of kids were missing from school today. It was also ridiculously humid- to the point where it was actually trigging my asthma, and I seriously thought about calling for sub coverage so I could go home.

Then The Principal's secretary sent an email telling everyone we could move to any of the air-conditioned spaces that were available if we wanted (if you're wondering why the whole school isn't air conditioned, it's because we only get a handful of days each year that are hot enough to warrant it and even then the cost is prohibitive). I claimed a corner of the auditorium for all of my classes. At first, I was the only teacher there, but then Mr. O brought his class down and occupied the opposite corner. By Block 4, there were a half dozen classes in the space, but it was still plenty big enough.

I don't have anymore planning to do- final project time in both my courses- so I spent my morning catching up on emails, doing reference checks for potential hires, and a handful of other non-instructional duties.

Then, in Global Studies, I read some first drafts of multigenre pieces, gave research pointers, and otherwise helped as my students needed. It was a hot day today, but the fans in my classroom kept it from being unbearable, so students still got a lot of good work done.

By the end of the day, though, the heat was rising, and I saw on the attendance lists that a handful of my APGOV students were absent today, so I did what I always do when I've got a group that's small enough: I stole The Principal's conference room.

The air conditioning was delightful.

Students read The Hill's morning report, and we chatted about national politics for a bit- since it's been a minute since we last did that- and then I showed an interview WMUR had done with the NH Speaker of the House a couple nights ago, discussing the end of the legislative session. And then we came back to local stuff. I showed an old video about life and politics in the region in the 1940s, which the kids got a kick out of, and assigned the final project: creating a video, a skit, or some other form of presentation about life and politics here today. They'll start work on that tomorrow.

Today was our seniors' final day of classes, which mean a lot of them were coming around to say thank you, ask to have their yearbooks signed, and generally make me emotional.

In APGOV, we successfully surprised the lone senior in the course. All students had to present the work they'd done examining their local town warrants, and I had her present last. Then, when everyone applauded her presentation, I snuck up with a card the other students had signed during senior skip day and a balloon, and then we laid out some goodies (cake, cupcakes, chips, popcorn) for a little party for the last half hour or so of class. It was great.

Earlier, in Global Studies, kids were hard at work on their multigenre projects. I walked around, offered pointers, etc... They've got some really awesome ideas, and I can't wait to see their work come together fully.

It's a state law that all high school graduates have to pass the 128-question version of the US Citizenship test with a 70% or higher. Students can retake it multiple times, but eventually they have to pass. Our students start taking the test during sophomore American Studies, and we try to make sure they all pass before moving onto junior year, but there are always a handful who don't. There are also transfer students, etc... And that means I have to make sure they get it done before graduation.

Our seniors' last day of classes is tomorrow. And one of them just passed the test today. He was so, so happy to have done it, and I was happy for him!

That happened while my APGOV students were in the middle of wrapping up an assignment on local government and/or revising the papers they'd submitted on Friday (argument papers on the efficacy of a state legislator of their choosing). Before that? My Global Studies student started their multigenre projects. Longtime readers will know that I always start by asking them what's going on in the world that we should be concerned about. It can be things we've studies, things they've learned elsewhere, it's all fair game.

I filled one entire side of my whiteboard with their answers.

Then I had them choose a topic, went over the project instructions, and had them get to work. And it's already brilliant. I love ending the year with this because it's always so cool to see what students decide to do.

After school, I had a union board meeting- final one of the year!- and then had to dash back to the high school for spring sports awards. It was a successful season for a lot of teams, including mine, so it was nice to celebrate that. And, of course, it was nice to celebrate the team's seniors one more time.

Ohhh, today was so ridiculous.

A wasp got into my classroom during my first section of Global Studies and caused a solid eight minutes of chaos because it would not leave, and it would not die. I finally took care of it, but that was nuts. And it happened while my students were trying to write an on-demand essay (I let them stay a few minutes past the bell, if needed, because of that distraction). Then, during the second section, there was a medical lockdown, so no one could leave the room. Thankfully, it was lifted before the bell rang and students were able to go to their next classes on time.

The third section was blessedly uneventful.

But, in APGOV, the boys in the class were bonkers. I know it's June and all, but it was beyond that. They could not sit still, keep their hands to themselves, resist taking each other's stuff. I actually threatened them with detention to get them to be even remotely on task. It was so silly.

I had too much to do during my prep time this morning- poor planning on my part, I wasn't taking into account that it was an early dismissal day today- and I needed about ten minutes at the start of each section of Global Studies to mark in their essay outlines. So what did I do? Had students go online and find news updates on any of the conflicts (DR Congo, Iran, Ukraine, Gaza) that we'd been studying, then I had everyone share something they'd learned. That actually teed up my planned lesson- reading and discussing an article about how these conflicts impact one another- perfectly.

Winging it? Yes. Expertly? Also yes.

Meantime, my APGOV lesson was meticulously planned. Students read an article about the historical development of our local region, which primed them to be thinking about the things shaping local policy-making. Then they got a copy of our school district's warrant, and the town warrant for whichever town they live in, and I did a brief lesson on how to read warrant articles, why certain things are included, etc... They have to choose three articles to research further, be able to explain their importance and determine whether or not they'd have voted for them. Or they can propose their own warrant articles and explain why. Or they can do a mix of the two. They'll put all this into some form of presentation for class on Tuesday.

Do they need that much time? No. But tomorrow's senior skip day, there are some sports dismissals coming up, etc, etc... So I'm giving them that much time because I'm anticipating that many of them won't actually be here for all of it.

See? Planning. I do it sometimes.

After students left, we all went to our PLC groups for our final session of the year. The outside facilitators who have joined us on Zoom for most of our meetings were actually there in person, which was very cool. We started with a quick icebreaker game called Follow the Leader, which, if you know how to play, you should know I crushed because of my martial arts training. Heh. Then we did the real work of examining spring testing data and our course roadmaps, discussing what to do to address deficits, and coming up with actual action steps. After that, we had some time for reflection and celebration. Mrs. R and I thanked our departments for supporting us as leaders through this process.

The leadership team is considering a change in our schedule model, and we want to see what students, families, and staff are thinking on that subject, so we've been designing some surveys to gather information. The Principal, The Career Tech Director, and I drafted the survey to send home to parents, and then I made it into a Google form. This morning, I did the same thing to the survey another small group within the team had drafted to send to students because The Principal asked me to.

Pretty sure he still thinks it's spooky that I'm as fast as I am (and he's so done with my jokes about how I don't need AI with this kind of natural speed), but it does come in handy.

I also rewrote my APGOV lesson to add more detail about how town meetings and deliberative sessions work here in NH, found a relevant video to use as a hook at the start of the block, and also pulled up some articles about the school budget votes in Croydon in 2022 because that's a great example of how participation matters.

That lesson ended up going super well in spite of the June squirreliness students are experiencing, so that's a win.

Global Studies was fine, too, but it was just a continuation of what they'd been doing: research and essay outlining about the effects of the Gaza War. Outlines were due at the end of class today, and while some of my students didn't need all three days I'd given them for this task, I think it was the right call because other students definitely did need that time. This ensures everyone is well-prepared to write on Thursday.

After school, I went down to the district's professional development center, which is housed in our district office, for the kick-off to some paid summer work on CBE and student engagement involving teachers from all grade levels. We did have to do one of those icebreakers at the beginning and share something we love, and I absolutely answered that my brain is full of kpop and I love having BTS concert tix, which earned me some laughs and cheers.