Friday, Jun. 18, 2004
Goodbye, posted at 10:54 p.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com It's the time of year for goodbyes. I say goodbye to the students, but that's only sad with the kids who you know won't make it back. I've got a nice kid named Ryan who occasionally showed flashes of diligence this year, was a fine actor playing the lead role in Fences, and went on the Outward Bound trip with me, but I doubt he'll be back due to grades. But most of the other kids will return, and I'll see in the hallway and pretend to know their names next year when they say hi.It's the adults that are tougher to say goodbye to. My boss is leaving. She came two years ago to a department struggling with mass departures and disunity and unhappiness, and, through her guidance, we became a department that gelled together and became the best department in the school. It's telling that we're losing just one out of fifteen teachers this year, and only then because of a family move to Arizona. Other departments are losing half, or more.
Annie is the most positive person I've ever met. She always had ways to shield us from the bureocracy of both the administration and the sytem. Also, she taught me how a curriculum team, working with a backwards skills approach, can really make the classroom a better place. She put a lot of faith in me as a 2nd- and 3rd-year teacher, and she'll always be someone I remember as a shaping force in my career. She's pregant, due in August, and is moving nearer to family in Boston.
Jason, from the pub crawl the other night, also said his final goodbyes tonight. His departure - he's an alum and has been teaching there for eight years and is the lacrosse and soccer coach - is the end of an era.
This is a morose time, but both these people are entering phases in their lives that will bring them much happiness, and it's hard not to be happy for them. I hope I stay in touch with both, and I think there's a reasonably good chance of that happening.
***
By the way, I solved the date-for-the-wedding crisis next Saturday by asking the journalism teacher to go with me. She'll also be the softball coach next year. She's also a big Melissa Ferrick fan. (Yup, she's a lesbian.)
Still no return of the call from the girl who left her number. That's a little weird. I might try back, just in case.