Bittersweet

Today was the last day of school. The last 13 or so weeks of school I have been counting down. This has been, by far, the most stressful year of my life. Up until yesterday, I COULDN'T WAIT until summer. But last night, it really hit me that I will never see any of those 29 little tykes again. All day yesterday and today I have been reminiscing about the year.

It was off to a hectic start:

-getting into my classroom less than 24 hours before school started

-teaching in 90 degree+ weather with no AC for the first week or two of school

-learning how to teach and control 29-30 students for 8 hours a day

-and just figuring the school system out

But I have learned SO much this year. I will always look back on this year with great memories.

I learned:

-to get up every day at 6:30 and go to bed by 10:30 every night

-that I shouldn't make plans for Friday nights because I will be asleep by, at the absolute latest, 9:00

-that on field day, I should DEFINITELY not make plans for the night, because I will be asleep by 7:30 that night

-to make up a one hour math lesson on the spot

-to minimize outside-of-school grading to one hour every two weeks

-to leave school at 4 and to be anxious to leave even before that

-how to deal with the constant stress of school and not taking it out on Steve...well...I'm still working on that one

-to work with people completely different than me

-to value education more than I ever have

-the importance of reading with your own children every night

-how to remember 15 different things that I must do at once

-to plan out my day a couple of weeks in advance, rather than have a plan for every 10 minutes, like I did at the beginning of the year

-that I have come to love even the most obnoxious little kids in the world

As an end-of-the-year activity, each of my students wrote their name at the top of a blank sheet of paper and we passed them around and each wrote something nice about the person on it. I decided to participate, and one of my sweet little girls wrote this to me, "Mrs. Winder, I like all your dresses. I wish I had hair like you. You are really good at math and have an amazing smile. No wonder why Steve married you."---Isn't that the cutest thing in the world? I know I shouldn't build my self-esteem from 10 year olds, but I will miss getting notes like this all the time at school.

I will definitely miss my students at Meadow, but I am excited to see what a new school year, new school, and new grade level will bring!