Nicole the Student

In K-12 school I was a great student.  An all-star.  The kid with all A's, eager to answer questions, excel on projects (unless they required artwork), be first at everything.  It's almost embarrassing to look back at what a little goody-two-shoes I was.  But whatever, I liked school. Loved it. So don't hate.  It was my thing.

In college, I was an ok student.  I learned you could sleep through a class and no scary monster came and dragged you out of bed and hung you from the flagpole in your skivvies (or any similarly terrifying consequence).  I figured out that if you went to a good enough school, GPA wouldn't make or break you.  I studied hard for the classes I loved, I skirted the edges of minimum requirements for the few I didn't.  I took a little time to "find myself" or, eh, something.  I took notes.  I didn't really raise my hand.

By grad school I was burned out.  Period.  I did what I absolutely had to do.  Thankfully there were other teachers in my cohort like Miss L who managed to stay on top of things or who knows if I would've kept myself together.  My outside of school life (including, you know, teaching other good - and many not-so-good - students) took precedence over my academics.  I made snarky comments to my fellow Fellows.  I forgot homework assignments.  I contemplated skipping my comprehensive exam altogether to go to Apple Blossom (ha!  what a piece of work I was).

Now that I'm finally out of school, I think I'm the worst student yet.  During a professional development this week we were learning about how our official observations will be evaluated next year.  Yeah, Virginia decided to revamp observations, AGAIN, even though California has already tried this out, paid the big bucks, and given it up after two years.  Nonetheless, we're being trained on it.  Comparing the new set of standards to our old ones.  Working in small groups and sharing out. Graphic organizers and the works.

But who already lost the all-important handouts?  And who tried to skip out on the shareout by just sticking her postits to the board and sitting down?  And who really just showed up because it's mandatory and she overheard there would be cupcakes?

Yeah.

You know, I hope a lot of things for PDG.  Mostly I hope for health and happiness.  Then sometimes I hope he'll succeed in school.  Maybe not all A's success, but you know, tried-hard success.  I hope he loves school like I did.  Because I really did love it.  But I also hope that he gets out of it before he turns into the student I've become.

That, or I hope professional development one day becomes useful, inventive, and exciting.

And then, you know, I hope he wins the lotto and takes me to Disneyworld.  If we're just throwing hopes out there.