Friday, December 18, 2009
Christmas Break Begins!
Semester exam week ended with no make-up exams needing to be scheduled. All 128 of my students were present. The list of students restricted from taking exams because of unpaid tuition contained only 31 names at the beginning of the week; and by Thursday all names had been removed.
My students did reasonably well; especially the AP Chemistry students, considering how long and difficult their exam is. The average in my AP Chemistry class was 85% with only 3 failures out of 39 students. Honors chemistry achieved an average of 86% with only 4 failures out of 89 students. The honors chemistry exam was 100 multiple choice questions; about 30 of which required a calculation. I credit the new study guides I produced for each section with helping to prepare the students.
The faculty Christmas luncheon on Wednesday was quite nice. Each year the service that runs the cafeteria operation donates a “high class” meal for the school’s use. In the past this special meal was used to reward donors; but this year the sisters decided to use it for the faculty. I had prime rib, lasagna, green beans, and roasted potatoes.
My Christmas shopping is finished, my exams are graded and recorded, and I am looking forward to two weeks of rest. I have taken off next week from tutoring, scheduling only one day the week after for a few students. I plan to rest, sleep late, get some exercise at the health club, and generally spend time with the family. I will need to work on next semesters schedule and lesson plans, but that should only take a day at home in my office. As I wrote in the last post, it is an extremely needed rest.
One of the topics for discussion at my luncheon table was Christmas gifts from students. Everyone agreed that high school students typically do not give gifts to their teachers at Christmas, and I would have to say that they never have, in my experience at least. I got several cards, 3 bags of candy, some cookies, cologne, and gift certificates to Panera Bread and Starbucks. The largest gift from a student was a $50 gift card. Several of the nuns at our table remarked that in their grade school teaching days, every student gave a gift at Christmas. My uncle, who taught grade school for many years, told me that he used to get enough cologne every year to last the rest of his life.
My tutoring students were remarkably generous. One family gave me $250 and another $30. Two girls who I tutored last year sent gifts in the mail; one, a pair of statuettes for my bookshelf, and another sent a gift certificate.
Christmas gifts from students’ are never expected, but for most teachers, even a small gift from a student means something special.
At this Christmas I am thankful for my relatively good health—it would be excellent if I could get my blood sugar under better control every day. Two of our teachers are in the hospital; one just had surgery and is resting comfortably. I spoke to her this morning and she is groggy, but feeling better, hoping to be released today. The other has been hospitalized for a week. He received a kidney and pancreas transplant several years ago, and still has many nagging health problems related to his condition. Another man will be undergoing surgery for prostate cancer after the break and will miss 6-8 weeks. His replacement is a former student. Another woman in the English department just had double knee surgery. She is due back at the beginning of the next semester after being out for about 5 weeks. One of the assistant principals had some heart related problems and, while back at work, is not feeling 100% just yet. Health related issues are a major concern for me and my family. I am always looking to find ways to improve my condition and feel better. To be perfectly honest I have been feeling tired lately—probably related to the number of hours I work each week. I know that better lifestyle choices would probably help and I am committed to working toward them. I will also admit that that bag of chocolate covered pretzels a student gave me looks tempting—but I plan to go the health club instead.
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