End of the Year

My school year ended with students on Tuesday of this week. My third graders didn't really seem to want to go home for the summer. You know you've done your job when a community of learners come together and want to stay together. The end of the year is so busy and I feel like it just sneaks right up on all of us before we know it. Again this year, I woke up on the last day reflecting about our year and it was inevitable I was teary eyed before I walked out the door. I seem to forget how attached I get to each one of my students.

The last day is often filled with such kind words and thoughts from many people. As you might imagine the tears can continue to surface. This year my students worked with a parent in my room to video goodbye thoughts to me. These things were mentioned a lot. They liked not having assigned seats, bluebird monitoring, studying mealworms, and all the books in our classroom. In thinking about working with kindergarteners next year, I will continue not having assigned seats, study things very hands on, and make a great classroom library.

I was lucky to work with our new gifted teacher this year and we worked with the students together in my classroom, daily. I was blessed to have this colleague become my friend. She wrote me a note to end our year working together with a gift of a small notebook. I thought her words were very insightful but a wonderful reflection for all educators to think of.

"I decided on a small notebook that you can carry everywhere to record ideas for your blog, your lessons, your life. It is also a bit symbolic. You see each child as a fresh, new notebook, ready for filling with memories and lessons on life and love."

May we all strive for this, after we rejuvenate this summer.