End of the School Year (And How We Survived)

We made it. I am typing this blog post after finishing up my final day of the 2016-17 school year.

We had fun at my school this year, especially during these last couple of weeks. Here were some of the highlights.

THE DUNK TANK
I sat in the dunk tank, along with other staff members, during Field Day this year. It happened to be a cold-ish, breezy day, but it was still a blast.

The sixth grade teacher said, some of her students wanted to dunk me, "but others were like, 'I don’t think I should do that to Mrs. Duggan!'”

The fifth graders on the other hand . . .

"Let's Dunk Duggan!" one fifth grade boy yelled, and it stuck.

"Hey, that's called an alliteration," I told them. "Nice literary device!"

The kids' aim improved all of a sudden. I went under. Several times.

MUSIC VIDEOS
You might remember that my sixth graders complete a music video project in my class every year. In previous years, the videos have often consisted of boys pretending to be in rock bands.

This year, there were lots of dancing girls. Actually, the boys danced too, but more whip/nae nae-style. The girls, however, performed self-taught, lyrical ballet pieces.

I blame Dance Moms. They all want to be Maddie. From what I can gather, the girls study the dances on YouTube and teach themselves the routines. It is an interesting trend.

DUCT TAPE
So . . . the students also duct taped our principal and our resource room teacher to the wall last week. (No worries! It wasn't a mutiny. It was for a fundraiser.)

CAMP DAY

I helped lead music for the third grade classes at Camp Day. We did some Taylor Swift and Shawn Mendes. Then the kids started making requests.

"Can you play "Feliz Navidad?'" one girl asked.

"It's like ninety degrees out here," I replied, "and you want to sing Christmas music?"

I scratched my cornea and had to wear glasses during the last week of school, which freaked out the kids to no end. That's a story in itself.

"You look very singer-songwriter wearing your glasses, playing your guitar," my husband, Dan, commented when he saw the Camp Day photos. "Very Lisa Loeb."

Yes! I'll take that!

IMPACTING STUDENTS
I often receive tokens of appreciation throughout the school year. This year, in particular, I heard from more students than usual that they came to school for choir or the Peter Pan play or whatever we were doing in music class that week.

One parent approached me at Kindergarten Graduation and said, "Our [oldest] child has had a rough last couple of years. But being in the choir really gave her something to look forward to at school."

I'm not telling this story to toot my own horn or even to say that I have had a greater impact on students than the other wonderful educators in the country.

It's just nice to remember, from time to time, why I do what I do.

WHAT NOW?

I brought some stuff home to work on during the summer. Now, I just have to figure out where it will go. And that's the real story behind the end of the school year.

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