Thursday, February 19, 2015

Prairie Girls




Emily

I’m Emily Ealy, and I’m excited. My mum’s sisters are coming on the train to visit! They will attend the last day of school activities with my family. In their letter they spoke of a lady named Mother Jones they heard speak in Chicago. Their letter said she worked to make coal mining safer. I’m anxious to see my aunts and glad they will be here for the last day of school. I wonder if my teacher will give me a souvenir booklet.



The End of the School Year
                                                   By Collette

The end of the school year was both hectic and exciting. At our high school students might be exempt from finals if they had a high percentage in the class and good attendance. The office wanted the names of those students on the same day as seniors’ grades needed to be turned in to determine if they graduated. To say this was a little stressful for teachers was an understatement because there was often a glitch.

That glitch was entering and extracting grades from each teacher’s computer. Because the entire district used computers to enter grades, there could be a problem with so many people using them at the same time. Some teachers solved the problem by simply cutting off grades early. Teachers were charged to have “meaningful activities” the last few days of school. That translated as no movies were to be shown. I spent years coming up with “meaningful ideas” for those days.

I stayed late at school at the end of the year so I could have my grades posted, room ready for the summer and time to say farewell to my colleagues before summer began. There was always a flurry of meetings at the end, too. I had one principal who would tell us how many days we had before it was time to return. Despite his remark, it was difficult not to feel excited that I had those few days at home.

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