My eighth year at St. Vincent Pallotti has drawn to a close, and overall, it was a satisfactory year. As always, I delight in the honors freshmen, enjoying easing them into the school culture. I had two sections, as usual, and each had a very distinct personality. They arrived better prepared for high school than I had seen since Covid-19, which was encouraging. We got along well, and overall, they seemed happy with the material.
The sole exception was Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, which I like, but for three years in a row, it is the freshmen’s least favorite work. I was all set to replace it with The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde when my peer, the other freshmen teacher, chimed in. Her classes have repeatedly rejected The Hobbit, one of our summer reading books. She had lobbied before that it needed to be replaced, but our AP and I were resistant. This year, we had another discussion that led to making some substantive changes.
Replacing Tolkien’s classic, we’re going to try The Hunger Games, which fulfills our desire for something using the Hero’s Journey template. From what we can tell, the majority of our students across the grades are familiar with the name, may have seen the films, but are unfamiliar with the source material. This has led me to drop to Jekyll and A Christmas Carol to bring The Hobbit into the curriculum, anchoring our mythology and Hero’s Journey unit.
I’ll need to spend some of the summer revamping my curriculum running order to figure out how to fit it in. Hunger Games does provide me with not only the Hero’s Journey but is also a dystopic tale which I can also use with my dystopian short story unit, which was a success this year, after adding in Harlan Ellison’s “Repent Harlequin, Said the Ticktockman.”
The sophomores continued to display a general disinterest in learning, which vexes me, considering how much I enjoy most of what I use. They tell me they like our books—The Color of Water and American Street in particular but were iffy about Gatsby. I also tried out Newsies as a film addressing multiple themes, such as the evolving American Dream, but it didn’t excite them, so I’ll try something else next year. I also struggled getting them to do deep, analytical writing.
There were behavioral issues and more instances of AI doing the heavy lifting for students. One of the last things I did this year was chair an AI working group, where we evaluated the current policy, discussed potential changes, and conducted an anonymous student survey to gain a better understanding of their attitudes and usage. The survey results weren’t surprising, and we have a new draft to work with.
The real challenge was Yearbook, where I had a steep learning curve due to the numerous moving parts involved in the book itself, as well as covering all the events, working with the printer, and coordinating with the photography studio. I had previously taught most of the students and was hoping we’d have a good time together. Instead, of the 27 students (23 seniors, four juniors), maybe eight could be consistently counted on to do work on the pages. When I handed over the alternative work so they could receive grades, the results were unspectacular. Yet, we produced a book that arrived in late April, and I received compliments from the staff on how well it came out. We spent April and May working on the 48-page supplement covering March to May events, and once the seniors left, it was just me and four juniors to complete it. We managed to that task and made it look even better, applying the lessons learned and refining our approach. I’ll give those pages a final once-over this week and then submit them to the printer.
Thankfully, I had a nice break last weekend as I traveled up to Trek Long Island. I didn’t sell many books, but I did enjoy my panels and seeing my friends. It was significant to honor Peter David with a memorial panel and attend a virtual shiva.
I completed the finals grading on Friday before our annual faculty party, and Saturday morning, I finished and submitted the grades, officially done for the year.
This is the first summer in years without an assigned project. As a result, I have three things to work on: an S&S short story (1), which is intended for Thrilling Adventure Yarns 2026, which is currently in the works (2), and then get back to an original novel outline (3), which I began during Christmas break and look forward to getting back to.
There’s also a bunch of travel coming up, more than usual, which should be fun.
What We’re Watching
This week, we finished Andor, which we thoroughly enjoyed. Intentionally or not, themes and Mom Mothma’s episode 10 speech certainly resonated given today’s current events.
We’ve continued to enjoy Etoile, disappointed to learn it’s already been canceled. And Industry continues to fascinate, especially Rishi’s spotlight episode. And Slow Horses season two has happily kicked into high gear after a slow start.
And for a bit of culture, we attended a production of Senior Class at the Olney Theatre. A fun musical that I think my school’s theater nerds would adore. They nailed the teenage personalities quite well.
On my own, I completed the current season of Doctor Who, and that two-parter does not make a lot of sense, yet it raised the stakes and delivered a nicely done farewell for the current cast. I didn’t expect Ncuti Gatwa to last a mere two seasons. He was a very different kind of Doctor, and it wasn’t the skin tone, but his more emotional aspect, far from his preceding incarnations.
What I’m Reading
I officially kicked off the summer break by beginning Brad Meltzer’s The JFK Conspiracy, a fun page-turner so far.
I also continue to work my way through Iron Flame and find the story engrossing despite the eye-rolling heightened romance.
I managed to complete reading The Night Eaters Book Three and Phenomena Book Three, both of which were reviewed over at ComicMix. And of course, there were the usual digital DC titles, which run weeks behind the print books. I thoroughly enjoyed the final issue of Tom King’s Black Canary, perhaps the highlight of the week.
#Tags: A Christmas Carol, American Street, Andor, Brad Meltzer, Doctor Who, Etoile, Harlan Ellison, Industry, Iron Flame, Olney Theatre, Phenomena, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Slow Horses, St. Vincent Pallotti High School, The Color of Water, The Death-Eaters, The Great Gatsby, The Hobbit, The Hunger Games, The JFK Conspiracy, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and MrHyde, Thrilling Adventure Yarns, Tom King, Trek Long Island, Yearbook