Last week I received an e-mail that said all of my application documents were completed and they were being sent to immigration and visa processing in the U.A.E.
I just want to say how much I am enjoying the end of my year at Winnetonka High School in North Kansas City. A lot of people assume that I am done and just counting down the days. However, that is not the case at all. I am so busy with many projects, and committed to finishing strong.
Recently, my Advanced Journalism class won three "All-Missouri" awards at our state competition and 18 other awards! It was so much fun watching the kids win because they are self-taught and student-led and all I do is organize and guide. What they earn is truly from a lot of hard work and their own intrinsic motivation.
Here is a photo of this year's Editor in chief, Emily, on the left and next year's Editor in chief, on the right, Rachel:
I am looking forward to my new teaching adventure across seas, but very sad to be leaving this group of kids. What helps me is that I know they will be ready for anything!
In fact, after the way our day started when we went to our competition I know they can do anything. Not too far away from the school our bus broke down and it could have become very depressing, but they stayed cheerful and waited for another bus to pick us up--I didn't hear one complaint. The bus had to pull over on the side of the road and getting out was kind of tricky. One group of kids managed to get out the door and then when I went down the stairs, I was ready to turn around and sit down and just stay on the side of the road for the day. The door was right on the edge of a steep hill. The kids cheered me on and I made it out (I truly panicked because I get dizzy when I look over the edge of something high, look out a window of a higher building, and even watching movies that have scenes that are high up). And then the kids climbed out the back of the bus, I should have followed them!
I am in the process of planning our little awards assembly that we do at the end of each year to send the seniors off. I have testing to do with my 10th graders. Lots and lots of novel projects to grade--I have a lot to do! I am a busy person. I have too much going on to "be done".
My husband is packing. Which is really good because I have not done much myself! We did travel to Branson and emptied a huge portion of our storage shed so we could just store the sentimental things. There were so many things that we had not used in years, so we figured we may as well let it go. We donated a lot to the Human Society thrift store and brought some back to KC to have a garage sale with a friend in May.
So, at this point it is all about finishing the school year, packing my classroom and our apartment, and trying to help with wedding details. Unless I get some big news my next blog may be about trekking down to Florida and spending time with family!
We are headed out Memorial weekend, dropping our things off in Branson, picking Aerin up and going to take a nice few days and enjoying the sites to South East Florida to drive Janae and Nick crazy for a month before they get married.
Dr. Shannon Rennaker, educator
FYI as of this date the UAE is still having delays in immigration and Visa processing. Technically I am supposed to leave the U.S. in August, but it could be between August and December. I have a plan in place if this is the case. No worries!
To do list:
* Buy me a dress for the wedding (shoes)
* Get my husband a tux
* Help finish paying for wedding plans
* Find a place to stay in Florida
* Win the lottery (I should probably buy a ticket more often)
