Thank you all for a GREAT year!

What a year it's been!

When I was a student at Bosse, my favorite classes were the English/history co-op, also called Hist-a-Lit. The teachers made the classes fun and challenging, and plus I enjoyed being in class with all of my friends. Over the years, numbers in Honors courses dwindled and two periods of English/history Honors cut back to just one. Life, it seems, has its ways of coming full circle.

In my fourth year at Bosse, I had the priviledge of teaching two (very different) periods of English 9H. Although we struggled to come to a better understanding of each other at the beginning -- we pulled through reading and writing about Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and Night. We invited the staff to join us in wearing paperclips in honor of the more than 6 million Holocaust victims. We reflected on our own lives in an autobiography, explicated the text in a response to literature, and compared and contrasted two very different autobiographies in a literary analysis. The growing pains of learning finally began to seep in: true knowledge does not equal a letter grade.

Nearly halfway through the semester, I gained an intern from the University of Evansville, Ms. Wayne, and she joined us in our adventures of taking apart Romeo and Juliet act by act, scene by scene, line by line. Our first attempt toward truly 'owning' the literature included purchasing a class set of books and circling, labeling, and highlighting the text. The frustration of reading a text nearly 'in another language' became easier as we sailed through the acts. We learned not only to appreciate Shakespeare as a world-renowned playwright but also reflected on the morals offered through Romeo and Juliet's actions (and those of their families and friends). A text hundreds of years old still had meaning for us today. So we reflected in the form of a business letter from the Prince, wrote a 'mini compare-contrast' after viewing two film interpretations of the play, planned a wedding celebration in a webquest, decided who was most at fault for Romeo and Juliet's deaths in a persuasive essay, and designed a soundtrack for the play.

As we rapidly approached the the holiday season, I made an announcement: it's a boy. Some of you already knew. Some of you had trouble believing me -- until my growing belly became more prominent when we returned from holiday break. I knew I would be leaving you a grading period early, so we arranged the schedule in a way so I could be with you for research, one of the most challenging units, and during The Odyssey and "The Metamorphosis." We had twelve weeks left together. One of our greatest challenges for this semester involved something we had little control over: the weather. Still, we pushed onward.

Research lasted a little over a month and while we didn't get to meet in the lab as much as we would have liked, we had the opportunity to meet with each other outside of class at one of the local public libraries in the evenings to delve into research more thoroughly.

After research, we took a deeper look at our second literary purchase: The Odyssey. Again, notes were lengthy and full of literary devices and allusions to other myths. The fury of Poseidon also unleashed in our small, southern Indiana town -- random snow days, early dismissals -- even a couple 'rain days' threatened to cut our calendar time for The Odyssey in half. We barely had time to fit in our interview. We typed a final copy of a response to literature and had to accept the snow days as a reason to extend the deadline for our Odyssey Top Ten.

Two weeks before Spring Break, I asked you all how you would like to use a SMARTBoard in class, if we could receive one. You gave me ample input and I incorporated it into my application, which would be considered among the 1500 EVSC staff. Among those 1500, 147 applied. Because of the input you provided me, I found out the day before spring break that EVSC chose me as one of ten lucky winners of a SMARTBoard.

Going into Spring Break, we would have two weeks left together to discuss "The Metamorphosis," so we read (or listened) to the story over break. Kafka, mastermind of symbolism and existentialism, taught us many things as we tore apart our third purchase of the year. He taught us that sometimes people can take advantage of us; sometimes, people are truly alone in the world. Sometimes our relationships are not always what they seem. And, probably most importantly, all work and no play makes one a giant cockroach. One of our best memories: the roach stuck on the tape in the back of the room and my hesitation in disposing of it because it represented Gregor and Jesus. We rounded out the grading period with an oral response to literature and spoke to the class about symbolism, Gregor and his relationships with his family, and their motives.

My last day: I'd been mentally preparing for it for a while. Trying to hold back the tears, I wanted to be the Stoic I'd been at the beginning of the year. I bought special waterproof makeup just for that occasion. I always look forward to the end of the day and our time spent together, laughing and learning, enjoying each other's company. The best kind of learning environment is one where everyone may mutually respect one another and still have a good time while gaining knowledge. We achieved that and more this year -- and I have you to thank. I've enjoyed seeing every one of you grow as person this year -- and achieved my most important goal of helping you become better readers and better writers. You're a sweet bunch of young adults, and I will miss you horribly, thinking of you always between the hours of 12:55 and 2:40pm. Know that as soon as baby and I are well enough to visit, we will.

As you can see, the 'Build a Bear' you gave us has a special place in baby's room already -- in the center shelf with his certificate. I'll enjoy telling my son the story of Shakesbear when he's older and about the 36 awesome individuals who gave him to us.




Take care, keep in touch, and hopefully see you soon,
Mrs. Feller