1. For today, the final day of English 20 in this year and their final class with me, the grade elevens had a few photo essay presentations to present. With all the projectors booked throughout the school for classes watching Christmas movies, it was a cozy setting for students to gather round my laptop to watch and listen to the few projects left to watch. Some people obviously put much more effort into their projects than others, but everyone completed them and “finished” just has a nice ring to it, I can understand. 
2. We reviewed some of the skills the students have learned throughout this course. Ms. Campbell and I sat recently to discuss what their ELA 20 comprehensive exam might look like. Since she will have intimate knowledge only of what they do for the last two weeks of the class, she got several of the readings and examples of student work from some of the assignments, such as what exactly is expected now of these bright students when they write an essay or the tell-tale signs of a piece of writing being reflective. Integrating quotations smoothly into a formal essay body paragraph is another of their new talents, along with using commas and transitional phrases. (Did you see how I just used both a comma And a transitional phrase there? See it? Yeah…. it’s like that!)
3. Alas, it was our final class and we shared our hugs, laughs, and goodbyes. I have to honestly say this class is an exceptionally bright and mature class, even though a few of them were walking around toting a toy gun. It was a sincere pleasure to share the class time with you, the personal reflections and discussions we had in reading the literature together, and especially being able to share this class, the course that focuses on looking back to your childhood to find its value and influence and then looking towards your future to take an honest look at what may come – it may have possibly changed me. Thank you for all of it! 

God bless and have a safe and happy holiday!!   Students were so excited for the last day of school they were jumping for joy! (Or rather, they had my camera and were enjoying the novelty of being able to capture action shots so quickly and clearly. This sophisticated and technologically advanced piece of photographic equipment was reduced to being … just a toy for a while. lol Kids will be kids!!  [rockyou96351954]