(but 20 ’til Summer.)

Sure, I’m overstating things a little, but “Glory” refers to the AP Statistics Exam (on Friday, May 9). 1

2

As I sit here preparing to go back to work this week, sometime in the next day or two, my brain will hit that switch — that proverbial switch3 that flips me into full-fledged crunch-time mode… until… well… until “Glory”.

In sports, one might refer to this as “WINNING TIME”.

That’s what Magic Johnson used to call that part of the game: that critical juncture where there are about 4 minutes left to go in the fourth; where one’s poise and experience will lead to triumph — or, conversely, where a lack of may cause one to crumble.

Overly-dramatic? Perhaps. But this is, more-or-less, the attitude I take into the Spring semester. 4

So. Here is how the remainder of this campaign breaks down:

• 9 weeks to go until Spring Break…
• 8 weeks after that until the Statistics AP Exam (aka, “Glory”).56
• 3 weeks after that — including final exam week — until Summer.7
• Along the way, we get 3 days off: MLK Day, Good Friday (which we call “Spring Holiday”), and some Monday in mid-February to honor of one (or more) of the U.S. Presidents. 89

Simultaneously, the majority of my students are seniors, and legend tells of this mythical disease called “senioritis” that is often characterized by formerly studious kids transforming into meandering zombies, bloody-red sunrises in the sky, and a screeching halt to all meaningful productivity — basically the end of civilized life as we know it.

(Not that I know ANYTHING about “senioritis”. It’s not like I’ve ever had to deal with it firsthand with any of my students.) </sarcasm>

All told, there are 20 weeks to go until Summer break. Perhaps that sounds like a lot, perhaps it doesn’t, but this much I know:

These 20 weeks will fly by and be gone before you know it. And that is somewhat bittersweet, because this year has been — and surely will continue to be — one to remember.

And here is one [awesome] upside of having a public blog that current students are free to creep on:

Just before the break, a student saw my last post — specifically about the part about my eye-less pet rock — and brought a NEW EYEBALL.10

1. And I want to make this clear up front: The AP Exam is an important destination… but truly, I have always felt that the journey is more important than just the final destination. [↩]
2. on a side note: I seriously wonder if one day in the not-too-distant future, kids are gonna see pictures of these things and NOT know what they are… [↩]
3. and OH, right now, that is one TOUGH switch to flip! [↩]
4. Sure, one can argue that the entire year — and not just the second half — should be “winning time”, but… yeah… well… OKAY. [↩]
5. The AP Calculus Exams are the same week, but on Wednesday, while Stat is on Friday. [↩]
6. Incidentally, I hate the fact that our exam is on a Friday afternoon for the 2nd year in a row. The global proportion of “passing” scores dropped by a full percentage point last year, and while I’ll never be able to prove it, I suspect that had something to do with it. [↩]
7. aka, “Glory, the sequel”… or — if you’re me: HIBERNATION. [↩]
8. I know I’ve mentioned this before, but I remember back when I was in high school, we got three consecutive Mondays off in February. Sigh. That was also before the Internet, when it cost $0.15/minute to make a phone call from Texas to California, and when Mark Wahlberg was still “Marky”. [↩]
9. Actually… now that I think about it, that last one might just be a day off for students, and not staff. Erghrh. [↩]
10. Which really begs the question… what is anybody doing with a spare eyeball?! =) [↩]