Memorial Day, Blackboard & Howard

Well, it's Memorial Day and I hope that everyone is enjoying their holiday and taking a moment to remember all those who sacrificed their lives so that we can enjoy our freedom.

I am trying desperately to close out the school year which is why I am spending part of my holiday trying to get caught up on grading, paperwork and end of the year stuff. I hate stuff, don't you?

We are going to use Blackboard next year and have to have certain items done before we are allowed to check out of school and leave for the summer.

I'm not exactly sure what happens to people who don't complete these tasks. Will they chain us to a desk for the summer and lock us in the school until we come into compliance? Just the mere thought of that rather terrifies me which is why I am spending this holiday frantically searching for a video to embed so I can complete Item #1b. Luckily, my friend over at Teachj has a wealth of stuff.


I picked a 20 minute video on depth of field. As you can see, Howard the Shelter Cat was not impressed. Not at all. In fact, he rather exhibited the attention span of some of my students.

I'm not sure that bodes well for next year.

Top 5 Things to Woo-Hoo About

Woo-hoo! Only one more Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday left of school.

Oh yeah, let's not forget one Saturday thrown in just for teachers to turn in all their stuff. You know, important stuff like grades, projectors, books and, well, stuff.

Jeepers Creepers, I really wasn't sure I was going to make it. I could write pages and pages about that, but not much of it would be funny. Let's just say I spent an inordinate amount of time this year throwing starfish after starfish back into the ocean, and all I got in return were stinky fish hands. (You can read that starfish story here.) I do take some solace in reading blogs by other teachers and discovering that they, too, only ended up with stinky fish hands when their year ended.

Still, since this is a no-whining blog, let's look at 5 things that can be considered Woo-Hoo worthy  this year…

Richie's Top Five WOO-HOO Worthy Things

#5…All my freshmen, sophomores and juniors are exempt from final exams. (Translation: I don't have finals to grade and can get my grades done early.)

#4…The kiddos all loved the yearbook this year, and so far, I have yet to receive a telephone call about how something in the yearbook ruined someone's life. I did have a phone call, though, from a parent who asked if we could deliver their yearbook curbside. You know, I guess like Sonic. I should have told her, "Sorry, no-can-do. I misplaced my rollerskates."

#3…My school district encourages and promotes the use of technology which is one reason why they don't block my blog. But, as with everything involving teens, sometimes you get a little more than you bargain for. It's a good thing my principal has such a great sense of humor. The kiddos showed their PhotoShop expertise on a photograph of Dr. Al and gave him this picture framed…

#2…My BFF who lives in a necklace is returning to the Lone Star state and will be teaching at my school next year. She's the one that gave me the Chicken Chucker. I, of course, gave her finger puppets. I think we're going to have some kind of F-U-N next year.

And finally, the Numero Uno reason to shout WOO-HOO as the year ends…

#1…All of those Things That Will Get You Fired actually ended up in my "Things That Will Get You Fired" folder and not in any publication.