Last-TIme-Lasts

“The end of a melody is not its goal: but nonetheless, had the melody not reached its end it would not have reached its goal either. A parable.”  ― Friedrich Nietzsche

We are running out of time. Lao Tzu calls time a “created thing.” That created thing is escaping our grasp at a rapid pace. There are only weeks to go in the school year. Weeks to complete the M-Step testing, finish the school improvement plan, do all the end of the year items such as Field Day (with its preparations), scheduling students into 2015/16 classes, end-of-year field trips, etc. The list feels endless. Ah, there’s time in that endlessness.

And for me, this ending is so bittersweet.

So many lasts that are last-time-lasts. It’s hard not to have it in the back of my head that the fall will come and I will not be the person greeting students and staff, planning the first day agenda for our PD day, or thinking about and planning 6^th grade camp (how will we get all that luggage out there?). It’s been my life for a long time. It’s been my principle role.

I am feeling a lot of guilt about leaving Cooper. At the same time, I want to celebrate all of these last-time-lasts. I won’t get to do this again. I want to enjoy the lasts in the same way we do every year with the last things we do. And I want to celebrate the last-time-lasts for me. The guilt about leaving fights with the joy at all we’ve accomplished and that this has been a job well done. I’m trying to find the balance in these last weeks. Balance the joy of the end of something wonderful with the sadness that it has to end. I want to end this book well. No regrets. Nothing left to chance in these last weeks.

In our profession, we are finished at the end of each school year. And we are never really finished. For me, the job is ending. My role as a leader at Cooper is ending.

Time to make this story's happy ending.

“The opposite of the happy ending is not actually the sad ending--the sad ending is sometimes the happy ending. The opposite of the happy ending is actually the unsatisfying ending.”  ― Orson Scott Card

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Big Rocks

• Testing window changes allow us to schedule 6th grade M-Step beginning May 11. Please email Terry if there are days or times in that week you cannot test. We will get schedules out by Wednesday so we need that information right away. The test window continues to June 5
• ACES is Wednesday. You will get a map and directions. We will have parents stationed around the building to assist with students following the route.

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Our schedule for this week

Monday:          Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!

Tuesday:          PD all day at Cooper!

Wednesday:    ACES!

                           8:00 IST in the Conference Room

Thursday:         No staff meeting!

                            10:00 DAC at CO (Terry)

Friday:               8:00 Title I Meeting at CO (Sarah, Terry, Robin)