Don’t hold me accountable for the next 20 days, please. Pretty please.

I get it. Every day is an instructional day. Every day, I’m supposed to engage students, activate their minds, differentiate for all learners, and use multiple assessments to make sure my lesson plan got through to the students. I’ll hold myself to that until June 26th, and with luck, most of my students will too. After 10 years of teaching, I would prefer if people observed / dropped by / inspected / walked through my classroom anytime from September through May, but June? June is just not it.

I laugh because, much to the surprise of people living in their bubbles, the school year is almost over. Schools across the five boroughs have started the deluge of field trips, games, and celebration planning. The sunlight bursts through windows like

and you kinda wish the students were as enthusiastic about coming into the classroom as the heat has. The air conditioners are no help because the minute my door opens, the reminders that it’s 80° outside creeps in.

For my eighth graders, the warmth has also means worrying whether or not they’re graduating with the grades they want. For some, they’re content with just passing the 65 mark (even with my perpetual insistence that they should strive for more) while others want the hallowed grade of 100 (even with my perpetual insistence that they’re going to have to work harder to get it). Even the best-behaved students don’t want to deal with the adult standing in front of them. My stares aren’t working. My countdowns aren’t working as well. I wish it was just me, but … I won’t snitch. I’ll just say the magic wears off.

Of course, I’m perhaps weary of the day-to-day as well. My hands are still sore from grading stacks of end-of-the-year work, make-up work, “Oh, I thought I gave this to you” work, “No, you really should do this again because this ain’t your best” work, and “finefinefine my mom made me make this work up” work. I’ve called parents, given progress reports, and given (chance) to the umpteenth power to kids who others would yell “No excuses!” to. I didn’t cover every base, I’m sure, but alskamlsfi;anc. Alas.

For educators like me, there’s no such thing as “time off,” just time away from being the character they’ve accepted in the classroom. I’m looking forward to putting fictional combinations of all these students in my next book since most of them are upset they’re not in This Is Not A Test. Which makes no sense because they were barely out of diapers when I finished the first manuscript, but I don’t mention that. For my sanity more than anything.

So we will be counting down. The last 20 days signals the opportunity for adults to be more human than underpaid robot. The objective is to leave students with great memories. The “Do Now” is to have some fun. The lesson is to look at all the other lessons learned from the year and hope they remember it for the next year. The conclusion is upon us, and maybe we can allow ourselves the chance to laugh when kids want to do their best impression of us.

Maybe.