songbird's crazy world

(cross posted at Midcentury Modern Moms ) Becca's senior year, that is. In New York, the school year generally runs from just after Labor Day until the end of June, with graduation scheduled the last Sunday in June. On the high school level, the last two weeks of June are devoted to statewide subject matter tests called "regents exams" and/or school-prepared final exams in core subjects. In our school district, students are expected to finish all of their regents exams by the end of their junior year. In thier senior year students are expected to take six academic periods (we have a 9-period day) incluidng English and social Studies, as well as gym. The senior year can be academically challenging or as fluffy as cotton, depdning on which classes the student selects. Becca has always been academically motivated. She took two Advanced Placement classes in her junior year -- US History and English Language. For her senior year she chose a challenging program which...

(cross posted at Midcentury Modern Moms ) I have to admit, I've never heard the term...until last week. Jen sent me a text telling me "Joe and I are going into the city for his poetry slam." I consider mysefl a sophisticated New Yorker and a patron of the arts, not to mention that I majored in English back in the day, but I had to google "poetry slam". (OMG, the 21st century is creeping into my vocabulary. I didn't look it up, I "googled" it.) Anyhow, it seems that a poetry slam is a contest, where poets are given a set amount of time to recite their works and judges are randomly selected from the audience. I suppose it's somewhat avant garde ... Until recently I wouldn't have imagined that this type of entertainment would appeal to Jen. Or that the boy she's going with (a young man she's known since middle school) would turn out to be one of the poets. Or, for that matter, that Jen would choose "English" a...

"first day of school". Becca begins her senior year of high school today. her last year of public school. it was the spring of 1997 -- just yesterday -- that I walked her into the elementary school building, the one where Jen was a student, to enroll Becca in kindergarten. and just a few months later that she left preschool behind and began her career as a student in our school district. when she moved from elementary school to middle school, I cried. when she moved from middle school to high school, I cried some more. and when she graduates next June, I am sure I will be a mess. our lives have been governed by the school district calendar since 1995, when Jen began kindergarten. sad to think we won't be ruled by that calendar anymore. but becca is already grumbling about "why do I have to be in high school, I want to be in college." it's going to be an interesting year.

I visited the school district's website today. and there it was. the 2009-2010 school calendar. the first day of school. each vacation day. the last day of classes. graduation. Becca's senior year, laid out on a neat sheet of paper. the last year my life will be governed by a public school calendar. when the girls were little I figured out "Jen will graduate from high school in 2008 and Becca in 2010." 2010. wasn't that an Arthur C. Clarke novel? it seemed so far away. and now it's almost here. and I'm not ready to let her go.

grandy had once again tagged everyone. this time we must all tell 7 things about ourselves in high school. so here goes: 1. When you say "high school" I say "which one?" because our district had two high schools, and I attended both. In those days, high school was grades 10-12 (9th graders were in junior high). In all the years I'd lived in our town, the school district had only one high school, and when you said "the high school" everyone knew what you meant. but when I was in 9th grade, the district built a second building, about a mile away from the high school, and told us that "the high school" would now be called "High School east" and the new building would be called "High School West." 1oth graders would attend West and upperclassmen would attend East. Wehn I started at West, we were stumbling over construction crews on our way to class. (I still live in the same town, and now both high schools are full, 4...