An End in Sight!!!

T-5 1/2 days left of school, 4 1/2 days with kids...not that I'm counting or anything ;)

Don't get me wrong--I'm not counting down because I can't bear the thought of spending another day with my class.  Actually, that's not even close to accurate.  I was looking at my class today and was just in awe of how far they have come this year.  Yes, they still get too loud, forget their homework, and talk back.  As we have gotten closer and closer to June, even the "good ones" have had a little extra sass.  Yes, they make me crazy.  But I have come to love this class.  Today I was thinking about how they have been able to handle having their desks in table groups of 6, to participate in a very discussion/decision based social studies simulation, and to write for 30 minutes plus in their "wagon train" diaries, and some students ask for more time (yes, it did take a good 10 minutes to settle down and START, but once they did, they didn't want to stop).  They have come a long way.  I have come a long way.  WE have come a long way. 

I know in 5, 10, 20 years I will look back at this year as a pivotal one--they told me when I started here that if you can teach at my school, you can teach anywhere.  While I don't know about that, I do know that no matter what kind of hoodlums walk into my room next August (this year's fourth graders are quite the wild bunch...if by wild you mean completely crazy), I will be able to get through it.  I made it through this year, after all, right?  (And hopefully never again will I stay in the building until 10pm on a Tuesday, or so late on a Friday that my car gets keyed in the parking lot...)

And so, as I peeled packing tape and sticky tack off my walls today while the kids had art class, and almost broke my neck trying to detach those nifty little things that hang from drop ceiling tiles, I began to feel a sense of closure.  We have almost made it through the year.  I didn't kill anyone, the kids didn't kill each other, most of them seemed to have learned at least a few things along the way, and I managed to keep the job for next year.  All in all, that sounds something like a success, no matter how many tears were shed in the process. :)

Things to look forward to: A quiet records day tomorrow, trying out new furniture arrangements in the room Tuesday with my mentor, performing pioneer-inspired readers' theatre plays, staff end of the year party next Friday

Things I have mixed feelings about: Field Day (never really liked it even as a kid...I know, I'm THAT kid...), packing up the rest of the room

Things I am NOT looking forward to: Getting a bill for the text books my kiddos lost this year and claim are NOT at their houses (although my mentor insists this won't fall on me, I'm not so sure...it may be time to start throwing up some extra prayers to my good friend St. Anthony)