Thursday of spring break finds me with a long to-do list not done, including many school related items. I had this plan to be all planned and copied for most of the rest of the school year, but my Tuesday I set aside for schoolwork turned into a COPIER nightmare. I stopped counting on jam #62. I swear that machine has some personal vendetta against me!

We start our big graphing unit after break, taking what we know about coordinate graphs, writing and solving equations, slope and functions, and combining it all into linear equations, graphing calculators, and other fun stuff. It is always a fun unit for me. I love the logic of graphing, using that graph to predict and solve problems. I also love sharing the fun of graphing calculators with my students.

For most kids, it is easy stuff, fun stuff, stuff that falls into place. However, inevitably, I will have a few who still cannnot grasp the (x,y) coordinate process for some reason. For them, this is like torture because their graphs are always wrong, unpredictable, and make no sense. For other students, they will miss a day here and there, just enough to make what we are doing impossible to follow. Try as I will, there is simply no way to make up for the days missed with them, and they are hopelessly lost, with a Swiss cheese understanding of the unit.

But the school year is winding down, and I am becoming more reflective of what to do differently next year. I have some ideas for restructuring my math classes, especially my 'low' class. As those plans start to form in my mind, the reality strikes me, what will I be teaching next year. With declining enrollment, our looming budget crisis, and retirees in various positions, and other positions being cut, I wonder where the dust will settle and find me in the fall. I have been in this particular room and position, with a little variation, for a long time now. I love what I do and where I am, and am reluctant to leave. **sigh**