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december 21, 2000."Hello SuperNintendo Chalmers!" Now my quotes aren't even close to making sense. Today was my last day at the highschool. I don't feel very good right now - I'm not sure if it's all the sugar, all the viewings of "It's a Wonderful Life" or all the frustrated adrenaline that's making my stomach churn and my head ache. Bah. It's just like the last day of camp. I thought that there would be - well, more. I didn't say anything that I wanted to say. I let the boy who gave me the song walk out of class without telling him how much I appreciated it, and how he's welcome to come over & use the 4-track anytime he wants a break from his hockey house. I'm soo mad at myself. And once again, I'm hit in the gut with the idea that I'm not as inviting and personable as I'd like to be. Petra got presents. I got squat-all, not even a hug. But. There was an amusing 5 minutes at the end of the day when the girls in my grade 12 class were firing off personal questions like an SS interrogation team. I told them my first name, how old I am, when I got married, why I kept my birth name, the last name of my husband, the first name of my husband, and if I call him by his first name. "No," I said, "I call him Mr. B------. In a few years I'll be able to call him 'father,' just like old people." "Why?" they howled, "Are you pregnant?" I had to wait through a few minutes of hysterical laughter after that one. I stood with my arms wrapped around my head, eyes shut & blushing madly. That was kind of fun. Then there was the time I used the word "hiatus," and a girl thought that I had called them hyenas. For last period on the day before the last day before Christmas vacation, they were incredible. I mean, they were about as difficult as they tend to be without being overly brutal. I handed out evaluation forms today to get some student feedback on my technique. As you might expect, the results were not unanimously positive. One kid (who's repeating the class for the third time) responded to the statement 'the material was presented in an interesting way' with strong disagreement, adding the comment "it was all pretty boring." I thought that was hilarious, actually. I have to wonder what kind of material would really appeal to him, although porn might be near the mark. I had thought that there would be a difference between the grades, as I tend to have a positive feeling from my 11 classes and a negative feeling from the 12's, but it wasn't that pronounced. There were a few comments from the 12's about the amount of material they had to copy down, but I'm not too concerned - I never wanted to teach Fifth Business the way I did, and given more than 5 days to teach it, I wouldn't've made them do as much brainless note-taking. So next time it'll all be different anyway. In truth, the only comments I took seriously were the ones concerning the volume of presentation and the speed of the lesson. I know that I'm a tad too retiring for a lecturer, especially in a class of 33, especially when 6 or 7 of those 33 are talking among themselves. Overall, I was pleased with the feedback. And yes, there were a few jokey "we should be together!" comments from the rowdier boys, which I find endlessly amusing. In the words of Being John Malkovich, they wouldn't know what to do with me if they got me.
Instead of turning in a novel essay this week, the foreign exchange students prepared a report on the education system in their home countries. It was mildly interesting. The best part was the German girl's speech - I was in secret hysterics at her accent, 'cause all I could think of was Agamemnon's experiences in Germany when he was an exchange student. The way I understand it, he drank his way through the Continent, and many amusing war stories have been told of this time. I particularly like him to exclaim, "Oh my God! I only have one shoe!" in German - it's a phrase that neatly sums up the whole thing. I had him repeat it during the party after my wedding - after which, he went on to insult Paris in German. High-larious.
And that was my day. I'm going to go clean up the bedroom now, before the Boy comes home and I have to admit that I haven't done nearly enough housework this week. Toronto tomorrow!! I'm so psyched. I've wanted this for so long that I'm almost used up now that it's here. I need a shot of anticipation, stat.
photo of the world according to university college shamelessly stolen from toronto.com |
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