As They Pursue Their Dreams. . . to the THS Class of 2017
(Credit for the graduation night photo to Jim Wallace, who gave both his permission and his blessing for me to use it. 🙂) As you may know by now (and as the other members of the Thomson High School ELA department and my co-teachers are tired of hearing), my last active day as a public school teacher is Wednesday, May 24, 2017. I’m retiring for any number of reasons: high-stakes testing, excessive bureaucracy, and just an all-around educational philosophy that differs from mine. (My mantra: “You can’t quantify teaching.”) I have to admit, though, that the timing for leaving THS is actually pretty appropriate because I’m going out with the Class of 2017, and being there without them next year would be awfully strange. These students have been a huge part of my life at THS. . . and even though the journey with them hasn’t always been a perfect one, life wouldn’t be the same without them if I were staying. If I counted the names on the program accurately, 216 stu