For Thursday, June 12, 1997 Drummer Column, Gibbs, 725 words

School's out

Today is the last day of school. Wahoo. Boohoo. Wahoo.

The boohoo is for all the student friends of mine who are graduating this year. They have been promoted to college while I remain forever in high school. The boohoo is also because I'm saying good-bye to one of the best years of my career. It wasn't best just because of the students - I have great students every year. It was best because my class sizes were actually reasonable. All my classes were around 20-25 students. We were able to get to know each other, and I was able to work them hard enough for them to learn a few things.

It's tough to have 30-35 kids in each class. I don't have time to spend on individual attention, and every essay I assign equals 20-30 hours of paper grading at home. Combine with that the time it takes to do roll, give absent students make-up work, handle discipline because the large numbers result in more disruptions, and there's little time left for a personal life. Then the fatigue of it all usually wears me out around April, making the last few months agony for us all.

This year, I'm energized. If every year were like this one, I could work into my 90s. The boohoo is also because I'm saying farewell to my classroom. I'm being moved again - this makes eight moves in 12 years. What makes it hard for me is that I have a journalism computer lab that must be relocated each time. Eight networked computers, printers, scanners, copiers all must be torn down and rebuilt across campus. It's like being a carney.

When most teachers move, they grab their briefcases, tag their file cabinets, and go home. I have to move everything myself. Actually, I don't have to move myself, but I prefer it. That way I'm sure my complex wiring and costly peripherals don't get mis-labeled, mishandled, or missed.

The rest of that boohoo is for the classroom I'm leaving behind. It was the best room on campus. It was the only classroom in the cafeteria building, so we could be as noisy as we wanted without disturbing anyone. We could watch a film in surround sound with my eight speaker sound system. My 20-foot ceiling made up for the lack of air conditioning. It was also a huge room with space for my journalism lab, my literature classes, my computer repair class, plus two side rooms for storage of computer equipment. Having the empty cafeteria right outside my door gave us extra space to do student projects and skit rehearsals.

Alas, that room is scheduled to be torn down next week to make room for a badly needed expanded cafeteria.

It's time for the wahoos. I'm happy for all my students. We had a ball together this year. I watched them grow and learn and have fun. We even went rafting together. I've made a lot of new friends.

There's a wahoo for my new classroom. It's in the new N wing, so it's spiffy. It also has a side room that is just the right size for my journalism lab, and nearby storage for our mountain of computer parts. If the new wing only had Internet connections it would be perfect. For some reason, probably financial, it was never wired. That seems a shame that a school building in the '90s would be constructed without access to the Internet.

Of course, it does have plenty of empty conduit.

There's a wahoo in knowing, hoping, that this may actually be my room for more than two years, which is the longest I've ever been in one place. I barely remember what it is like to end a year without packing, thinking only about final exams. It will be novel to start a year without having all my worldly possessions still in boxes under boxes.

The big wahoo, of course, is because summer is finally here. I can spend my days tinkering and traveling. I have no big trips planned. I have no big projects planned. I don't want to do any one thing that takes longer than a week. I want each day to be new and free. I want to wake up each morning with nothing to do. I think the word I'm looking for here is lollygag.