The End is Nigh

Fun at the Art Show! 

You guys. We are so close. So close I can taste it. Ten more teaching days, then another first grade year is in the books. It is so crazy to believe we're once again here at the end. But before I start counting my chickens, here's a little bit of fun we've been up to as we count it down.

My best Mona.

I volunteer to help work the Art Show every year at school. It is so fun to see the kids come in, dragging their parents to show off their artwork, all fancied up in a real frame. Since the day I worked at the first one, six long years ago, I have been looking forward to the moment my own child has their artwork up there. And so of course I had to buy it (school fundraiser, it's all good) and bring it home.

Violet with her very best friends on their spring field trip to the farm.

It is starting to hit me, hard, that these are my last few memory-making days at DCES. It's the only school I've every taught in. It's all I know. And soon the door will close on my time in these hallowed halls. Violet has made so many good friends this year and it makes me sad that she'll be starting over again. I'm keeping her in the Girl Scout troop, though, so she will still get to see some of them twice a month.

Our small group is doing a study called "Address the Mess" and I think this counts as my "hot mess!"

Last Daisy troop meeting of the year!

And then she turned 15 years old.

And now I just have to get through these next two weeks. Seriously, if you have any love in your heart at all for your child's teacher, bring her a coffee sometime this week. Because she's done. And the kids are done. And there are still ten more days. Field Day to survive, end of the year parties to plan and execute, volunteer thank you gifts to make, teacher gifts to buy, assessments to give and grade, report cards to enter, chaos to control. And there are some days when specials are cancelled and we have to eat in our classrooms and that means I'm with these kids for literally seven and a half hours without a break. No planning period. No chance to swing by the office to pick up notes. Not even a pee break.

And just remember, in two weeks, your children will be home with you. All summer. And they will be bored and hungry about 10.6 minutes after summer officially starts. So while you still can, go appreciate an exhausted, over-extended teacher.

A wise teacher/friend once made the remark that she always tries very intentionally to enjoy her students the last weeks of school. It's easy to get caught up in the countdown (see above two paragraphs) and forget that these are our last few days with the children we have taught and nurtured for the past ten months. They are ours for a short year, never to be our again. They will leave out the door that last day and that will be it. So I've planned a very exciting final week of school that I hope will be an amazing memory for my little guys as we close out first grade together. And I will be trying hard to smile and laugh and enjoy how far they've come.