Three Things Thursday: School's Out For Summer Edition

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1. School is OVER.  I packed my boxes, purged all of the unnecessary books and files, and said goodbye to my coworkers and students.  When I told my students that I was moving schools, I surprised myself by getting choked up.  I was definitely not expecting that!  I am SO ready to leave...but the truth is, I am attached to this group and will definitely miss them next year!

I was inspired by a similar picture on pinterest and had to recreate it with my own class.  I love the diversity you can see in this picture!  I seriously love these kids.  Might have to print and frame this one... :)

On the last day of school, I like to have the kids spend a few minutes reflecting on the year and writing me a letter.  I ask them to include something they liked this year, something they were proud of, etc.  Many are rushed because it's the last day and the kiddos are ready to be DONE, but there are always a few in the bunch that make me really remember why I do this...Highlights from this year...

Love the "your student/friend" signature :)

Love.

2. I spent the day with my new team doing some initial planning yesterday!  We had a great meeting and did some general curriculum mapping for science, social studies, and writing.  Literacy is pretty much mapped out for us (as is math), so we have a skeletal structure for our curriculum already!  And on the first day of summer too. :)  Speaking of being unable to turn my school brain off, I am already brainstorming my room layout and decor for next year!  In comparison to my current room, my new room is TINY.  Yikes!  That will be an adjustment for sure!  I will just have to be my super organized self and arrange/unpack carefully!  Right now I'm planning on ditching my teacher's desk for something much smaller from IKEA.  It will mean spending my own $$, but will save me SO much space!  And, as I learned in my packing/moving process, that desk was a magnet for JUNK.  There was stuff in the back of those deep drawers that I shoved out of sight during the first weeks of my first year! Maybe this little guy...

Also, in the spirit of making next year POSITIVE and HAPPY (as opposed to the nightmare of this year), I think I may ditch my sports theme and go with a classroom decor in pretty, calming teal blue with black and polka dot accents.  Why?  Because I love teal blue and black and polka dots.  They are pretty.  They will make me happy.  Happy Teacher = Happy Students.  :)  I'm bringing home a little bookshelf and my "teacher stool" to give teal and black makeovers to this summer!  I also hope to recover file cabinets in contact paper to give them a little face lift too and hopefully make some sheer curtains for the windows.  Is it sad that summer just started and I already am dreaming about my new room?  Can you tell I'm excited for a fresh start next year???

3. On a final note, we are T minus 3 days away from my TRIATHLON!  AHHHH!!!!   The good news is that I had a brick workout Sunday that was pretty near the distances I'll be taking on in the tri, and I survived.  Plus I did another open water swim at the same lake as last week, and it went great!  I finished in pretty speedy time (for me)!  The bad news is that my calves have been cramping up this week.  I haven't had calf issues in over a year!  Where is this coming from???  I suspect biking...time to roll out big time and pull on my compression sleeves...I'm going to do one more short bike/run workout this evening to stay loose, then it's 2 rest days followed by the race!  Woohoo!