Last night's commencement ceremony was a reminder of the importance of our work with students.  When our next crop of freshmen shows up in September they will try our patience, irritate, annoy and vex us.  They will cause us great consternation and lead us to question our career choice.  

They will be disrespectful and say ridiculous things and expect us to treat them like adults and get all snippy when we tell them what to do.  Through those times, let's remind one another that we are doing the most important work in the world.  We are molding human beings, many of whom have been discarded by everyone else.  

Some day they will be grateful, but that day won't come during their freshmen year, or maybe their sophomore, or maybe their junior, or maybe most of their senior year.  But as their brains mature and their perspectives broaden, your words will have already taken root. When that happens, they will be so deeply grateful to the teachers who stuck by them when no one else did.  Your job now is to rejuvenate yourselves and refresh your spirits.  Kids need you.  And, if we're honest with ourselves, we need them too.

Thoughts for Next School Year

Attendance: The plan for next year is to transfer students to online learning on their fifth absence.  I'm putting that in the handbook, sending home an email, putting it on the website and talking about it on registration BBQ day.  

Tardiness: I have a phone meeting planned with someone from Smart Pass, a digital monitoring system.  One of the things that was hanging us up on this plan was having an iPad in every classroom so kids could check themselves out.  Maybe they can do that from their Chromebooks.    

Finally, thank you for making this year meaningful for so many students.  I feel so grateful and fortunate to work with the Venture staff and to be part of our many challenges and celebrations.