Monday, June 25, 2012

0

0 - Cross-posted from Biking to School, where you can catch up on my retirement thoughts, starting in 20, and counting backward:    

Zero more days to be a teacher. Made it. Whew.
Thought this would be a good way to close this out.

 Joe, my third grade classroom mascot, said it best for me, at the end of my 31 year teaching career. He was the last to share at Show and Tell on the last day of school. He got a big round of applause.

Sunday, June 24, 2012

1

1 - Cross-posted from Biking to School, where you can catch up on my retirement thoughts, starting in 20, and counting backward:   

One day left. My last day of teaching kids was Friday. Monday will be my last day under contract as a teacher.

At this moment on Sunday, I'm physically exhausted and emotionally numb. Hoping to get in to school today to finish cleaning out my room, because really, I need more than a day. It is amazing what a person can accumulate over the years.

The West Seattle Blog just ran a really nice story, with pics, about my retirement:
1 more teacher farewell: Arbor Heights Elementary’s Mark Ahlness Many thanks to the good friends there.

Here are a few pictures from the end of the school year:



I think this will not be the post where I thank everybody. That'll be "0". And then there are replies needed on Facebook, email, etc. I will do that Monday. Must get the physical work taken care of.

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

3


3 - Cross-posted from Biking to School, where you can catch up on my retirement thoughts, starting in 20, and counting backward:  

Three days left being a teacher.

After an incredibly intense day in the classroom, giving away just about everything but the kitchen sink to my kids, I settled in at the computer at home to work on the Jr. Seahawk Newsletter for the last time.

It's the student newsletter, something I inherited in my third year of teaching at Arbor Heights - which means I've done it for 18 years. It was started by another teacher, Gretchen Thompson, my first year there, so this year has been Volume 21.

I have billed it for many years as "The oldest continuously published elementary school student newspaper on the Internet!" Nobody has ever questioned that, because it's true. It first appeared online, on the school's website, in 1994.

jrseahawknews

Just for kicks and giggles I decided to count all the editions. 144. At an average of 4 hours production time per issue, that works out to 576 hours. Roughly 16 school weeks. Count the several from 2002 and 2004 I have on my computer, never got uploaded (but will this summer), and we're looking at 18 school weeks, easily.

Half a year's worth of work, sitting at my computer, getting student writing edited and online.

Tomorrow I have to get there extra early to run off 400 copies. For the last time.

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

4


4 - Cross-posted from Biking to School, where you can catch up on my retirement thoughts, starting in 20, and counting backward: 

Four days left to be a teacher. So many things to write about, and so very little time.

I guess what struck me and stuck with me was connecting with my colleagues today. Not the people I work with every day, but my virtual colleagues. I let the news drop in  the Classblogmeister list that I was retiring, as I was letting David Warlick know about a sluggish response on my classroom blog. Several very nice responses followed, wishing me well, and thanking me for this or that over the years. From really, really fantastic teachers whom I admire greatly. So it meant a lot.

But it struck me that the people I work with every day really have no idea what I do online, what I have accomplished, have influenced, or have created with technology over the years. Goodness knows, I have tried. It is like I have this secret life that nobody I work with knows about.

This is a sadness for me, because I really have tried to be a positive influence in technology adoption and innovation in my own school and district. There are many reasons it did not happen, of course, but I'm not ready to start burning those bridges just yet....

Sunday, June 17, 2012

6


6 - Cross-posted from Biking to School, where you can catch up on my retirement thoughts, starting in 20, and counting backward:

Six days left to be a teacher, and I'm wavering.

Not on retiring, no way.

But I AM reconsidering the decision I made in my third grade class and blogged about in 7: that they don't get to blog over the summer, as all my other classes have been able to do. The issue, I told them, is that I won't be an employee of the public school system anymore.

Why am I struggling with this? Well, there's fairness of course. Then I finished approving their short reflective blog posts about the end of their blog. Their writing got to me. Much of it was about my retirement. And I think I have a way for parent permission to work.

So, here it is - one more writing assignment for the year, and it HAS to be completed in school on Monday. They will need to compose and post persuasive writing pieces about why they should be able to keep on blogging over the summer. And um, more than just: it isn't fair!

I've assigned more writing pieces for this year's bloggers (24) than in any of the previous six years. I have a feeling their motivation will be right up there. We'll see how they do.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

7

Cross-posted here, for a change, from my classroom blog today  Seven more days to be a teacher...

Well, we are finally nearing the end of the school year out here in Seattle. The last day of school is June 22nd. The students at roomtwelve.com know their blogging will end here, too. But it will be different this time, because I am retiring from teaching at the end of the school year.

In the past, students have been able to blog from home over the summer, or even continue from another classroom, with parent permission. But because I will no longer be an employee of the school district, I must close down the blog.

But wait! It's not going away!!

It will stay right here, with the thousands of articles written by the third graders in Room twelve. There just won't be any new writing going up.

One thing I will keep active over the summer though, is commenting. Visitors can leave comments on any student or teacher writing until September 1, 2012.

Many, many thanks to Mr. David Warlick, who designed and maintains classblogmeister for thousands of bloggers! Teachers and students are grateful and forever in your debt, David!

If you'd like to read what some of the current blogging class has to say about having a blog here, click on the picture below, where the kids were tallying up the total blog articles they have posted as a group this year:
411

Mark Ahlness

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

8


8 - Cross-posted from Biking to School, where you can catch up on my retirement thoughts, starting in 20, and counting backward:

Today was the Jr. Seahawk News Reporter Party, a celebration and thank you to the kids who've participated as classroom reporters for our monthly school newsletter. It was a wild, noisy, loud music, junk food event that parents might shudder at, but kids will talk about for a long time. I've been doing this for many years. I have to enlist my own classroom reporters to serve as party helpers and to man the gates, checking kids' names off the invitation list before giving them a plate and letting them in the room. It was great fun. And a total mess.

As I was doing final cleanup, I came across this paper airplane on the floor:
Thanks for the party
The kids know I'm retiring, so some asked me about next year, and would there be a party? I told them I did not know, it will be up to the teacher who continues the newspaper.

I hope it continues and stays online, as it is "The oldest continuously published elementary school student newspaper on the Internet!" http://jrseahawk.com

Eight days left to be a teacher.

9


9 - Cross-posted from Biking to School, where you can catch up on my retirement thoughts, starting in 20, and counting backward:

This will be quick. Nine more days to be a teacher. No time to waste. Today, a little story from my third grade classroom:

I'm roaming around, seeing how everybody is doing on their self directed and paced spelling unit for the week (35!), when I come up on a student who looks up from his work and says to me,

"Mr. Ahlness, I'm really lucky. In second grade I had Ms. NXXX, and this year I have you." He looked up at me with a smile so genuine, I had difficulty speaking.

I gave him a shoulder hug.
I told him I was lucky to have HIM in my class.
I looked at his partner, who was listening, and said I was lucky to have her, too.
And the same to a neighboring student who happened to overhear this quiet conversation.

We all smiled. It felt good.
The kids resumed working on their spelling.
I had to walk away to regain my composure.

This is what I will miss about being a teacher.

Monday, June 11, 2012

10

10 - Cross-posted from Biking to School, where you can catch up on my retirement thoughts, starting in 20, and counting backward:


XO laptops, a big part of my classroom for four and a half years...That's a long story, perhaps most completely told with this link.

Now that I'm retiring, I had to decide what to do with all those XOs. First off, nobody in the school - or district for that matter - knows very much at all about them. I'm the man in Seattle, when it comes to the XO laptop in education.

So I decided to take them with me, and to redeploy them in another country, most likely in Latin America. Fine.

All was going well with that plan until an email came out from http://olpcnews.com/. Among other things, the message linked to a blog post about donating unused/unwanted XOs to my classroom:

In the three days that followed that post, I have received offers of XO laptops from three individuals wanting to donate their XO laptops to my classroom. Sheesh! This is what I have told them:

Wow, thanks for the offer! You should know that I am retiring in 2 weeks, after being a teacher for 31 years. I am taking my classroom’s 30 XOs with me, and I will be redeploying them in a classroom somewhere in Latin America, where many schools are still using the XO. If you would like yours to be included in that redeployment, by all means send it my way. I am making sure all the XOs are operating and in good working order, and would be sure yours had the latest operating system on it.
 If you can get it here by June 25, the mailing address is:
One more thing to do, but this one is special. I hope they come. They'll be going South, to do good work.

Sunday, June 10, 2012

11

11 - Cross-posted from Biking to School, where you can catch up on my retirement thoughts, starting in 20, and counting backward:

Forest Floor
 The scene above from Lincoln Park in Seattle today was a welcome relief from the seemingly out of control nature of my life these past few days.

I have 11 days to go as a public schoolteacher. I've taught for 31 years. Way too many things to tie up, put a bow on, and kiss goodbye. Yeah, right. As I cross something off my year end list, I add two more. Or three.

There is the physical part of it all - totally emptying a classroom I have taught in for 19 years. The emotional part of things, well, I'm just not even going there yet....

Then there is this detail about actually teaching school for the last two weeks - definitely the hardest two weeks of ANY school year. It is so intense, nonstop and unstructured. This year it comes with the weight of my retirement hanging in the air.

Somebody mentioned they hoped I would be able to relax and enjoy the end of my last year as a teacher. Not likely. This is one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life.