SueC World: June 2014

Another month flies by -- Part III: Another retirement and the end of the school year

Retirement party: check. Graduation: check. The end of the school year was next. One of the things I'd participated in was the teacher section of the Senior Class Video. The girls who were in charge were both dancers, so they decided to have the teachers dance to Pharrell's "Happy." I had a lot of fun during the filming as I'm sure the other teachers did.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFhe9vWM1Dk

The morning after graduation, a number of teachers congregated to celebrate the retirement of another English teacher. She had decided to end her career on her own terms: running a celebratory mile around the school's track with whoever wanted to join her. What a great idea! The first video is getting ready to run.

The second is part of the victory run.

We then celebrated with sticky buns, fruit tart, and Rita's water ice!

Patti made some bricks for Pat representing Fried Green Tomatoes, a book she unsuccesfully tried to add to our curriculum..

Normally, Thursday is Purple Thursday, but today Rich and I both wore green, so we called it "Green Day"!

The next morning we had a faculty meeting followed by the second annual Hotdogs and Homers, a way to get the faculty together for lunch and some fun at-bats. I was talked into participating in the "game" -- silliness.

Here are random pictures of our team and the department.

There was a rainbow around the sun!!

Andrea's grandson with Sakita

And some more department shots.

Our team!

Two-thirds of our department!

Ending the year this way is absolutely fabulous!

Another month flies by -- Part II: Graduation

So, now on to the next part of the month. Monday was the retirement party; Wednesday of that week was graduation. Burt was concerned that we wouldn't get it in, but the weather cooperated, and about 1000 students graduated in under 1 1/2 hours. It's amazing.

Colleen and I walked with our ninth period classes. We all gather in the auxiliary gym until it's time to walk out onto the field.

Here I am with Kausthubha, a student in my tenth grade class as well as the mentorship this year.

Modeling my master's hood -- first time wearing it!

With Geoffrey - a French Canadian and charismatic student/diver/

Geoffrey and Jules - students in second semester Brit. Lit.

With Sally, one of my ninth period students

Out on the field

Sam giving the valedictory speech

Here's one of the school's pictures of graduation.

Afterwards, I met up with some of the graduation chaperones at the Smokehouse. I had such a great evening that I may just do this again next year!

Aerial view of commencement:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjyIAbguh2o

Another month flies by -- Part I.

It's really true -- as I get older, the time goes so much faster. My last entry was May 26, and it's now June 25. Many things occurred during the month of June: belated sister birthday lunch, retirement party, graduation, victory lap for another retiring teacher, and the end of the school year.

Connie had been in Mexico for her birthday, so in the beginning of the month, we got together for lunch.

The next big event was the retirement party for Pam Fullerton and Ken Kratz. I was involved in the planning of the event, especially the entertainment segment. Pam is the consummate party-giver, so we knew we couldn't out-Pam Pam! However, providing entertainment was a perfect choice since she's a big Broadway fan. We got two of our stars from the high school along with a former student of mine as accompanist. They were fabulous -- such a good idea, if I do say so myself. Here are the singers!