Almost...

Just one day left until my 2006-2007 school year duties are over. How bizarre is that?!? Today and tomorrow are teacher "post planning" workdays to finish up paperwork (there are mounds of it in elementary school!) and such. Today I turned in my attendance cards, cleaned out some stuff in my room, checked in cumulative records, and checked in most of my library and textbook materials. Tomorrow I need to turn in my lesson plans & grade book, report card copies from the first 3 quarters (the final goes in the cum. record), and check in my curriculum folders. Those are the main jobs for tomorrow, along with a few details for summer institute next week. Have I mentioned we're doing kitchen science as our theme? We are. :) I think it will be fun!

I was going to write more about the end of school, but honestly, I'm still a little too emotional about it. I definitely still tear up about it all being over whenever I think about it, so I think I need a little more time before I can blog about it! I do plan to make a scrapbook of this year with pages for our field trips and other special events and also a layout for each of my students with pictures, fun memories and things they said, and special characteristics of each one. I did NOT cry while they were at school Friday, but I have cried since I left that day, and teared up several times if I think about it much. I didn't realize how hard it would be to let go of them. Those little 8 and 9 year olds (and their families) blessed me so much this year, in countless ways. God really used them to brighten my lonely days down here, encourage me so much, and I'm just trying to hold onto the sweet memories and trust God for fun times this summer and a sweet class next year too. Someone told me you always have an extra special place in your heart for your very first class (as I had my *wonderful* mentor my internship year, and I took over mid-year last year, this was my first full year solo class ever),and while I'm sure that's true, I think there's more to it than that with this group. They really were a dream class, first year or not, and I can tell that as I am able to reflect on the year through scrapbooking and processing it all, God has more to teach me through my time with my class. I feel like I just lost 20 of my closest friends (not that I just treated them like equal friends in class, but I am realizing now that they're gone how much God used them to fill that friendless place in my life right now...), and it's a little daunting to move on to summer, but it's a much needed rest at the same time.

Since I can't write much more about my class without flooding the keyboard, I thought I'd post my first installment of "one year in the house before and after pictures." This weekend we installed a new ceiling fan in the kitchen, so it's even MORE updated now, but you'll get the idea. :)
(click on the pictures to make them bigger)