Crunch time...

These kids are totally wiped out.

The heat has basically fried their brains. I'm pretty fried as is. Our school doesn't have air conditioning units so each class can vary in temperature from a cool 88 degrees to a crippling 100 degrees or higher.

My kids don't understand the concept of keeping cool air in the classroom. If I am in an air conditioned room they feel it's not doing its job so they go to the windows in the back and open them to try to get a breeze. Yeah well the air temperature outside is much worse than the half-assed air conditioned air in the classroom.

My attendance has been abysmal but that's to be expected. Many students already know by now as to whether they've passed or failed the class so I usually only have the most dedicated students in my classrooms.

I can only hope that the last 4 days can be anything but chaos. I can finally relax a bit and get into the celebratory mood that my first year as a NYC science teacher has come to its close. Not without its ups and downs or the administrative and personal obstacles.

This is one of those moments where you look back and you re-evaluate everything you've done. You know have everything already planned out for September. I already have things planned for what will be different and how things are going to be unrecognizable by the time September rolls around.

Though I'm glad to see the year end, I've already started making plans for the fall. Logistically, it's the right thing to do and it'll save me a lot of time later on in the summer.

I get the impression that students are blissfully unaware of how to pursue their dreams. It's a famous quote by somebody I can't recall that "Some people follow their dreams, others hunt them down and beat them mercilessly into submission." A vast majority of students have dreams that they are dedicated towards, however they are not doing what it takes to get there. They feel like they are all well on their way towards their life goals. To be the voice of reason to these kids is harsh, but to be infinitely optimistic is also unethical in a sense. It's like convincing that every student that they could become astronauts.

It's also tough to accept the complete lack of involvement that the parents have in their kid's lives. I frequently ask myself if these students are actually raising their parents rather than vice versa.