Hatz and I-gor - two loons

Well, here is what I looked like when it was all over. During my prep, usually scheduled for last period, I would wander the halls spreading joy. Ms. Hatz (shown at right with her faithful assistant I-gor), would allow me to take over her class and teach whatever lesson was going on at the moment so she could do paperwork. The caveat was that I would teach the lesson my way. Hatz always understood me. So did I-gor. He was tasked as my union representative, a challenging. time comsuming job at that point of my career.

I am wearing my saxophone strap/ID card holder (decorative and functional). Also, the Sabian lanyard has my ball of school keys and a whistle on it. This is the shirt Ms. Vasco and I aways called my first day of school shirt.

In the above picture, I am in the lobby at ITMS. During the school day, when I might have had a few minutes to chill I would hang out here with the Ladies of the Lobby. Two of the building's more wonderful characters, sisters Joanne and Fran, were the lobby monitors. We shared a sense of the absurd that is so helpful when you work in a school district.

Once, I was sitting with Joanne, not wearing the green hat or glasses. I was, however wearing a pink bandana on my head. Our new superintendent passed through the lobby unseen by us. A bit later, the principal came out and told us that the superintendent wants to know who the Allman Brothers roadie in the lobby is.

last day of school - 2014

The picture below was taken the last day of my teaching career. Last day of my 21st year. 20 years teaching middle school band, one year teaching kindergarten music. Every year of middle school on the final day, I took the biggest speakers we owned and rolled them out to the school bus driveway. When the final bell of the year rang I hit play and Alice Cooper's "School's Out" would blast at top volume. Teachers would be squirting kids with super soakers. We had atmosphere, baby! School's out for summer. The cd segued into Pink Floyd, "We Don't Need No Education," and the Ramones, Rock & Roll High School.

During the final minutes of this final day of my final year, PE teacher extroadinaire Dana Lehnert was snapping pictures. The music was blasting. the kids were laughing. I was gently weeping, just like the song. I stepped out from behind the speaker where I was hiding. She looked at me, smiled warmly ... and took this picture.