I bet everyone in education, who is still in school right now, would say the same thing. We are winding down, but there is still so much going on.
The sophomore marketing class has been frantically trying to finish two big projects. Padua Times, a newsletter about the lives and times from “Taming of the Shrew,” is a cross curricular project. The English teacher works on content; I teach layout in InDesign. The students are also producing videos about their own lives and will present these to a real “client” the last week for their final. A friend is going to Norway next year as a Fulbright Scholar and she would like to show the Norwegian students what it’s like to live in Fresno. The video project seems to be winning in popularity as the kids try to work on that more than the newsletter.
The marketing 3 seniors are all done, finishing Friday with the ironing of their graduation gowns and hosting a small luncheon. The Academy graduation is next week, and their time for celebration is growing short.
I distributed the yearbook on Thursday and Friday. Hectic, but gratifying to get that book into kids’ hands. Now I have to start selling next year’s book.
On Friday we had visitors from a nearby high school who want to see how we operate our smaller learning communities. Although never a prophet in our own land, other schools often come to see how we do it. Because of all the chaos going on, I’m not too sure how much they were able to learn, except to see that we do a whole lot. Our department office is Grand Central Station, especially at this time of year.
We still have two more weeks of school, however the seniors leave on Thursday this next week. The campus will become somewhat calmer at that point. I will probably be able to write another post next weekend with the same title.
2 responses so far ↓
certainabsurdity // May 31, 2008 at 10:21 pm |
How long have you had SLC’s? Did you get a Gates’s Foundation grant to do it? We did but the money ran out about a year ago.
It sounds like you’re handling the end very well. It always feels so chaotic. We’re all ready to be done.
dkzody // June 2, 2008 at 1:36 am |
We did not get Gates money, never did understand why, but we did get an SLC grant from the State Dept of Ed and that’s how we started our SECOND SLC. The first one has been around for 18 years, and it’s funded with California Partnership Academy money. It takes LOTS of money for these animals to work. Or, for that matter, anything worthwhile in education takes lots of money.