Our squirreliest, most unfocused section of English missed their class last Friday because of the water main break, so today was the first time we saw them since last Wednesday. Grades were also due today, and all of them still needed to finish or submit their final summative writing piece, so we gave them a pep talk, clapped our hands, and encouraged them to get to work. Then we three teachers circulated through the room helping and cheering them on. And we were stunned when, as a group, they were more productive on the third to last day of school than they had been all month.
"We should have been telling them it was crunch time every day!" one of my co-teachers laughed, "but I guess they would have figured it out, eventually."
I thought of that conversation a little while later when a group of colleagues was lavishly praising and cajoling me to change my mind about retiring. I thanked them kindly but refused. "I should have been saying I was retiring every year," I laughed, "but I guess you would have gotten on to me, eventually!"
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