It is official --- the school year is over. Wednesday was the last day - I guess it is one of those "double-sided" swords - because a big part of me is simply relieved to be done. It has been a long frustrating year and there's a good chunk of these students I am glad to see move on to 8th grade.

But as with every year, there are those I will be sad to see go. In particular, Jake who was gone for the last few days for another stupid incident... what he did was wrong, at least from what I heard of it, but that does not mean that I did not miss the little fart while we were doing all that fun end of the year stuff. I still cannot figure him out - he has such great potential to be something POSITIVE... what does he so consistently choose otherwise??? and I'll miss Blake who was so sweet, and tried so hard to please, always, and Kim who went from a grumpy snotty young lady to the funniest, kindest, most enjoyable girl with attitude, and Lauren, who always makes me laugh, and Laury who also went through a dramatic attitude improvement over the course of the year, and Derek, who rises to meet every expectation, and Kassandra, and Marie, and Dave, who got the "PIGGY LOCKER" award, and Morgan, and Katelyn, and Courtney and Caitlin, the twins, and Jessica & Jennifer, the twins, and Warren, and Jeremy,who I can't start class without, and Joe, and Dale,who's come so far, and the other Jessica, and Miranda, and Mariah, and Amber and Jamie, who always makes me laugh, and Toni & Tony, and Brendon, and Char, and tardy Jessie, and Devin, and Tuffy, and John, who works so hard always, and even Travis, and gosh, I guess Dan who drove me nuts all year, and Micheal, and of course, Colleen & Alyson who are both such amazing young ladies, and Cindy, who never fails so smile, and I could go on and on... so I guess in looking back, there are more I will wish I had again, than the other way around....

GOod stuff this year - track meet math project - lots of fun, and they really seemed to do well with the ratios and percents this way - I will have to tuck this in my memory to do again. I love using the computer lab more - it will be great to have a class set of laptops available next year - the kids seem to respond to anything more positively when the computers are involved. It will be interesting to see if this holds true when we are able to use them daily.

This computer training I am going to - to be a Freedom to Learn Super Coach (doesn't that just sound so superhero - ish) will hopefully be just the thing we need to get our entire tech program back on track. I am excited to find out how other schools are using technology and how it can be better integrated across the curriculum. It seems much of our lab time is spent with kids creating a PowerPoint over and over... or typing another story or report - we need to be more innovative with technology and find ways to make its use more meaningful, relevant,and interesting. I think I personally some great gains here this year with the webquests we did, using math.com for actual lessons, and utilizing my links pages at teacherweb.com more. Not letting the kids search on their own may not give them that experience but so often it is a waste of time - giving them links allowed class time to be used so much more efficiently.

Not teaching social studies I will not miss - for the most part that always seemed to take a back burner to math, and I felt I did not do my class justice in what we were covering, at least the passion about the topics part... I know that learned some good stuff, and it was overall positive, but, yikes, when the teacher is not fired up, how can the kids be??? Next year teaching tech for 6th grade will be odd because I will be learning an entire new group of kids I won't have in class, but it should be easy to plan for, teach and evaluate/assess what they have learned.

that is all for now... I will think more about individual lessons another day and get this blog set for next year...