SCHOOL'S OUT!!

Today is my LAST day as a Public School teacher.

I must say ... I am pretty darn happy about that. I have one more exam to give .... then I am going out to lunch with the Math Dept. then work on getting everything turned in a checked out!

I am giving away a lot of things .... all my lava lamps and many of my CD's ... and all my little handheld puzzles that kids have loved over the years. My essence will still be floating around TCHS even when I am gone.

One of my online buddies asked me what kind of reaction I got when I turned in my letter of resignation. Well .... basically ... I got no reaction.

The Principal's secretary sent me an email to come sign my exit papers and she had the little :( symbol in her note. That told me she was a little sad. No reaction from the outgoing Principal nor from the incoming Principal, although she probably did a little "happy dance" when she heard. I would have been a MAJOR thorn in her side next year if I had stayed here.

The Math Dept seems a little sad to see me go ... and many wrote me nice notes in a card they gave me yesterday. But I also know they will be a bit relieved. The students liked me so much that I became a very hard act to follow .... and I know my fellow teachers got VERY tired of hearing "Why can't you be cool like Ms. Mackinnon?" or "Ms. Mackinnon used to do it this way ... why don't you?"

On the other hand .... my classes were often full of some of the most difficult students .... I had more than my fair share of Special Ed students and ESL students and troublemakers .... and that was because I dealt with them fairly and kindly and patiently and it is amazing no one died .... but if you work well with these kids, your reward is to get even more kids like that!

I also had some amazing sparks of brilliance scattered through each classroom of students. Lights that shined for me and will continue to shine into the future! Wonderful, wonderful people have passed through my doors.

The one administrator who has shown any sadness at my leaving is Dr. Mike Killian, Deputy Superintendent for the district. He came out to The Colony to visit the Principal on the day that my students and I were outside doing sidewalk art. He stopped by to see what we were doing and was surprised to hear it was a Geometry class ... not an Art class. He asked about the assignment and I filled him in as we toured the designs.

Dr. Killian sends out a daily email to teachers, etc keeping us updated on things going on in the district and in Austin. I have printed some excerpts from some of his emails in these posts. He is very disillusioned by this latest legislative session and he makes that very clear in his emails.

Mind you ... I am one of thousands of teachers in LISD ... so he doesn't know me from anyone else (although he probably would if I told him my previous married name). But when I told him I was not going to be returning to the classroom he seemed truly perplexed. When I told him I wasn't leaving town, just starting my own business he seemed even more perplexed.

I may be putting words in his head here ... but he seemed to be thinking .... "We have a good Math teacher here who clearly cares about the students and we are letting her go??"

At least, that is what I would like to think he was thinking.

I told one of my friends here that I thought it was kind of sad that no one has even bothered to try to talk me out of leaving. She mentioned that when she worked in management, the general belief was that once someone had made the decision to quit, there was little anyone would be able to do to change their mind. That is most likely very true for me .... but I still would have liked someone to try!