AOSR Graduation 2012

Right underneath my classroom window, the graduates lining up before they process into the gym.

47 students graduated in what was a 2.5 hour ceremony.

Throughout this year, I've been so nose to the grindstone about work and doing my job, that I didn't truly appreciate the fact I work at an INTERNATIONAL school.  The 47 graduates represented 18 nationalities.

Dr. Beth P., our headmaster getting this started.

The graduation speaker was the US Ambassador to Italy, who himself once attended AOSR.

The valedictorian, Dominic M. (Germany/Japan) and also a student in my BC Calculus class.

Of the 47 seniors, I taught 13 of them in either BC Calculus, IB Math HL or Precalculus. I snapped as many as I could as a memory.  Maddie C. (USA) is shown here.

Filippo C. (Italy)

Levi F. (USA) and on the right, Bebe D. (Brazil/Italy)

Josh D. (USA)

Yuval O. (Israel)

I also had seniors that were from Canada and India for which the photos didn't turn out.  As I reflect on this year, I can't believe it's over.  I was asked today how I feel about leaving.  That's a pretty good question and one that I've pondered.  I am excited for the change, but in the past few months (after a rough start where I was subject to school culture shock) I've grown attached to the school.  However, fundamentally, there are structural issues in the way things work that would, over time, wear at my desire to do a good job and I would settle into mediocrity.

One thing that I know drove me crazy was the schedule.  Teaching math to students every other day (we had 8 periods, but only 4 a day) meant that getting rhythm and continuity was impossible.  Then if a students missed a day of class, I didn't see them for four or five days.  Math needs to be done bit by bit....every day.

The culture of the school, where cheating is rampant, drove me crazy.  I fought it hard, but it was like playing whack-a-mole. There were times when I simply would suspect cheating and was so tired, that I didn't do anything about that.  I could see myself eventually being complacent and letting kids get away with it.  It's SO MUCH WORK to try and police it all the time.

I also have never come across students who cared SO LITTLE about their learning.  I realized sometime in the middle of the year that the range of abilities and perseverance is greater than I've ever had.  I taught some of the top students in my career this year, in fact three of my Calculus students make my top 5 ever.  But the students at the bottom.....are lower in ability and work ethic than I've ever had.  And...it's unfortunate to generalize, but those students at the bottom were predominantly Italian.  Whether or not its the culture or the fact that these are students from wealthy Italian families and thereby the kids know there lives are set for them that allows them to care so little, I don't know, but it's what I experienced.  What I will, in time, remember are all the kids that I loved and found to be interested in their learning and spirited in the way they lived their lives....such as the seniors I pictured above.

I know that were I to come back for a second year, I would have to start with a class policies sheet that would be three pages long.  The "general" guidelines I started with this year was eaten alive by the students.  I simply couldn't keep up with all the ways they would violate the spirit of my "rules" and find ways to get around them.  But, maybe that's just kids and I need to suck it up and accept that it's the way it is to be.

So, the seniors are gone, and I've got a few more weeks of finals and award ceremonies, etc.  I'll certainly continue to reflect on this year and probably leave with some positive feelings.  But this year has been the closest I've ever had to a "job" where I got up and really, at times, didn't want to go to work.  That's never happened before and probably significant in my decision to leave and head to China.