retirement, of a sort

This evening was my last RE class, possibly ever, certainly this academic year.  DD came along to help, and one student's mom stayed too, so tonight's class was easier than most have been, this year. 

I've done enough of these end-of-the-year-pizza-party classes to know exactly how to handle it, so there weren't any problems, and now I'm done. 

That looks very low key, that one word, "done", when in reality, I'm doing the Snoopy happy dance in my head and mentally rejoicing that it's over.  Then I feel a twinge or two of guilt that I should be so delighted (the most apt word) to be finished, then I swing back towards letting myself enjoy it. 

Funny thing is, we finished everything I wanted to do this year, even though I scaled back my expectations substantially.  Some of the work requirements for the students were revised this year by the RE department, and that made things easier for me, sure.  Earlier I had a sense of futility, that none of the students were learning anything, but today I realized that we did cover what I had said we would, and most of them actually had fun doing it.

Next year, I expect to be in grad school, and won't have my own class.  I did toss out the idea of being on call to substitute, so I won't be out of the system entirely.  But dropping in for an hour or two here or there is a lot different from being responsible for a class's formation.  

Yesterday I filed my last set of lesson plans for this school year and finished up my grading.  The next assessment I'll have to grade is my students' final exams.  After struggling to keep afloat since August, I'm ecstatic that I can actually relax after school for these next few weeks.   It's nice to finally have some breathing room.