This Year.

On May 09, 2022, my senior English students graduated from high school.

In 2021-22, I had the largest class sizes since I began teaching in 1991.

Our school had a substitute teacher shortage, and to compensate by not missing school and sending my students to the cafeteria or gym or to another teacher during planning, I only missed part of a day in the spring to deliver the eulogy at a friend’s funeral. (Not all teachers could keep such a commitment, and I fault none of my colleagues for their absences. We should be able to take the leave we are allotted.)

My seniors were also juniors during the pandemic, which means they had less exposure to writing a research paper. I walked them through our research writing assignment one section at a time, meeting with each student individually. Doing so spread me very thin, but the one-on-one time was…