Tuesday, June 26, 2007

louver = bad!

No news for Kirstin on the job front, and the suspense is killing us both!

I have decided that spray paint and paint guns were invented by somebody who had a houseful of louver doors to paint. We've got 4 on the closets in our bedroom, and I just got started on those today in the midst of working on getting the house ready to sell. I've got wall repair to do in a few rooms, beyond simply patching where pictures had been. There's some other miscellaneous things to do as well, but the goal (unreachable though it might be) is to have all the rooms repainted by the beginning of next week.

Nothing else new to report right now.

Thursday, June 21, 2007

almost done

I'm at work today to do some lab clean-up, now that I've got a trash can for getting rid of junk and some industrial-strength paper towels for working with glassware. I think I'll be asked to help deal with some science-specific questions at an interview for a possible replacement next week. Otherwise, I'll have handed keys in by the end of the week.

There were many times that I was frustrated this year, most often with the entitled mentality of the 8th graders that I had. And yet, I'm going to miss the school and the people in it. Some of the people that I would miss most are also leaving -- Mr. Reinke is moving to Philadelphia because his wife is starting a surgical internship/residency there (I never remember which of the two is right after med. school), Coach Hughes is starting a new position with the Partnership for a Drug-Free North Carolina, and Ms. Chisolm just decided it was time. I've got students I'd love to see through the next year as they get ready to graduate, and others that I'd like to see whether grow up because of what happened to them this year. That, and finding a new job is always just a bit scary.

My father-in-law is arriving around noon to help us with some of the house-prep projects as we get ready to put it on the market. If we're lucky, we'll know by the weekend where we're going; it's more realistically going to be Monday or so. Friends and family can be sure that we'll let them know as soon as we do.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

KHS memories

I've spent the last year working at Kestrel Heights School, a 6-12 charter school in Durham. It's really wanting to write this post that spurred my launch of this blog, as referenced earlier -- it's personal to me, and doesn't really fit the idea of Boy, n: A noise with dirt on it being Leo's baby book.

Friday morning was the 8th grade awards ceremony. It was one of those events where everybody gets something, so you can think of it as a "real" awards ceremony or not as you wish. The whole 8th grade staff helped present the certificates. It was really the first good chance I'd had to bring up the news of my departure to the 8th graders since Kirstin got her offer from School A. I didn't make it through without crying. When the last awardee was asking me not to cry, it only made things worse.

The following night was a smaller awards ceremony for students in all grades designed to honor the students of the year. I presented the 11th grade award, and the recipient was crying afterward. There are several students I've had this year that I'll miss tremendously. Some of them I would have missed anyway, as they were returning to the public school system for high school.

There was yet another awards ceremony Tuesday morning on the last day of school. It's a standing offer to students in my core classes (read: non-electives) that the student with the highest academic average for the year in each class period gets a book of their choice. This year's winners chose Twilight, by Stephanie Meyer; The Golem's Eye, by Jonathon Stroud, and Stardust, by Neil Gaiman. (The last student actually allowed me to pick for her, sort of -- she didn't know what she wanted, and I took a good guess based on other things I'd seen her read during the year.)

Tomorrow is the next game night at my friend Rick's, and there's a parent of somebody who would have been a student of mine next year that I think will want more details than I could comfortably talk about on Saturday.

We're going to try to go to Sunday's Durham Bulls game, if it isn't sold out. It's the only thing I asked about for Father's Day.

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Introduction

First, bonus points to those who can identify the source of the title. I'll let you know in a month or so, if you haven't figured it out.

I've had some more personal things that I've wanted to post, but that haven't been appropriate for "Boy, n.:", which is really more of Leo's baby book than anything else.

A few of those thoughts will show up here in the next few days, but at the moment it's time for me to leave work.