LAST DAY OF SCHOOL

The Last Day of School doesn't really feel like "the last day of school."

Sure, my room is packed up and ready, the grades have been finalized and sent, and it's only a half day.  The kids are totally into it, even if the rest of us aren't quite there.

It has been one interruption to our schedule after another, so the race to the finish is fraught with unusual days and plan changes.  In addition, the weather has not been super-cooperative.  The last few days have been rainy and cool, often imitating fall conditions, which makes the whole ending of school feel more like the beginning of school.

In our teacher hearts (which we really DO have), though, our senses know it's the ending of another year because all of our nerves are frayed.  We spend days snapping (at each other, at administration, at the students, at the janitorial staff, at the birds that crap on our cars in the parking lot) and snarking, a pattern that winds itself down to sheer exhaustion and the setting in of the "I just don't care anymore" attitude.

Thankfully, this final morning of the school year is cool and bright.  Sure, it'll warm up later while I'm still sitting at my desk working, but the kiddos get to leave early and enjoy the day, and that's what The Last Day of School is about: the kids have that sense of anxious clock-watching, then they burst out of the building like confetti from a can of compressed air, spraying every which-way in colorful craziness when that final bell sounds.