the next to last day of school

It was a crazy, insane day. We had our first grade carnival today. Very similar to field day, except with more water games. I was worn out by the end, but the kids had a great time.

They made me cry as they trickled in this morning with gifts and cards they had made themselves. One of my more challenging students that I have really bonded with brought me in a coffee cup that he had personalized with hearts and a picture of the two of us. It touched my heart to see how far we have come this year.

My students have grown and developed in amazing and sometimes almost miraculous ways this year. I am proud of each and every one of them.

One of the moms brought in a CD of pictures for me to use to make CDs for the other parents. Cause I'm the loser teacher who never remembers my own camera. It was cool to reflect back on the year. I found one of the most awesome pictures ever that I was so tempted to post. However there's all this legal mumbo jumbo about not posting pictures of students on the internet, etc. But it was a picture of my students sitting on the carpet listening to me read them a story. Every face is upturned looking at me. Every set of eyes is staring spellbound into mine. They are completely captivated by the moment. (Of course seeing this reaction narrows down for me to just a few which book I was probably reading) But I loved seeing them learning.

The mom also videoed me teaching (without me knowing). It was cool to go back and watch myself teach. I have never done this. There are those moments where I cringed, and there were moments that were pretty good. I may have to post some of the pics of just me, where you can't see the students. Just to show what a crazy nut I really am in my classroom. There are some awesome ones of me from Christmas dramatically opening gifts. Cause you have to make a huge big deal out of every little thing that children give you! My facial expressions are hysterical! I'll work on putting that online for all my friends to laugh at.

Just one more day with students and then one more work day to clean up and get things sorted out.

I think I'll make it!