My two cents (Week of June 7, 2021)

For each school day of the 2020-21 school year, I will be writing two sentences to capture some of the impressions, feelings, experiences, or thoughts I had that day. This is the 34th post in the series.

Monday (June 7)
The Olympic Games continue with another game of Kahoot. The 11th grade teachers met as grade team after school in one last-ditch effort to plan for students who are in desperate need of our support.

Tuesday (June 8)
Had a lovely, cookie-filled meeting after school with some colleagues as we closed out our time connecting compassion with teaching and learning. I’ve never been part of professional learning quite like this before and I’m thankful for it.

Wednesday (June 9)
To close out the Olympic Games, we played Math Pictionary; to ensure every team earned a nice collection of medals, I amusingly joined a couple of teams throughout the day to support them. I also began collecting mailing addresses from students so I can send them a copy of our book, Mathematical Voices, Volume 2.

Thursday (June 10)
The last day of classes and an emotional day for me. For me, saying goodbye to my students — my comrades, my companions, my battlemates — is an act I take seriously that honors the space they’ve taken up in my life for the last 10 months; this year I found it liberating, but sad.

Friday (June 11)
Today was the annual cutting of my beard. I fully expected to do it alone on Zoom, but, in a twist, two students walked in the classroom just as I was getting started and ended up doing it all.

bp