Meme credit to http://bonniekathryn.com/

Ha! I keep seeing all of these memes in the teacher facebook groups I belong to about teachers being tired at the end of the year and I definitely agree! End-of-the-year-teacher-tired is a thing in Venezuela too, friends.

My report cards are completely done, student portfolios are completed, classroom is starting to get cleaned out, and the dreaded end-of-the-year-checkout-form is just getting started.  Do teachers in the States have an end-of-the-year form too? I have had to fill out a form every year that I’ve been overseas so I know what to expect, but that doesn’t make it seem any shorter!

I feel like it is a bit of a school-wide scavenger hunt with the best prize ever- SUMMER “VACATION” (the quotes are because I will still be participating in a month-long IB course and teachers never really stop planning for the year to come!).

So what does the end-of-the-year-checkout-form include in Venezuela?

Even though I am returning next year to the same classroom I’ve been in for the past two years I still have to take down all of the bulletin boards (no staples or tape left behind!), take everything off of the walls, pack up the hundreds of books in my classroom library into ziplock bags (one of the only downsides to the library of my dreams), and then neatly organize everything in my closet.  I remember in Oregon that we were able to just drape plastic garbage bags over the classroom library! Those were the good old days! haha

Once we’re done with our physical classrooms, we have to delete all files from the classroom computer, and while the IT guys say that we should still have our files available on the server, we should back up those too.

Then, once everything is done in our classrooms, we have to go around and have the librarian (makes sure you have no overdue books), secretary (takes care of the umbrellas over the summer), IT people (wipe the computer, laptop, and take care of the iPad), and office manager (only needed if you are departing and checking out of your apartment) sign off on the sheet.  Don’t misplace it because you need most of those signatures before the end of the school day on Thursday!

Oh, and we musten’t forget to make handwritten comments in the students’ cumulative folders!

Then, after one last going-over, we show up for our scheduled sign out walk-through with the elementary principal who checks that everything is where it should be and everyone has signed off on the sheet. This year I signed up for one of the earliest sign-out times (7:30AM on a Saturday) in case I would need the extra travel time.

I’m so thankful I added travel time to my schedule because my friend in upper-school didn’t think to do this and she had one of her flights moved a whole day in advance so she will have to race to the airport.  I learned my lesson because last year I almost missed my flight to Paris thanks to the horrible Caracas airport delaying flights for 10 hours which would have caused me to miss two connecting flights!

Three more days of school (still no Fridays for us thanks to the water and electricity rationing)!

What does the end of the year look like at your school?