Grateful Friday

Yesterday was a terrific and exhausting day.  It was the last day of school.  I had 53 pages left in Ramona the Brave and my students wanted me to finish.  Challenge accepted.  They colored pictures and folded paper airplanes and some of them just sat with rapt attention and smiles on their faces.  Beverly Cleary is magic.  Every once in awhile someone would raise their hand and ask me what a word meant that I was reading.  I drew a picture of oxford shoes on the board because they had no idea what they were.  They gasped at the chapter "Ramona Says a Bad Word" and then laughed hysterically when her "bad word" was guts.  They all cheered when I finished.

There is nowhere in the world I would have rather been at that moment.

My students gave me thank you notes and flowers and potted plants and gift cards and hugs.  I kept my tears in because no one needs to see their third grade teacher cry.

But I love those guys.

I will always remember them.  My little troopers who doggedly wore masks every day.

After they left, the teachers gathered in the library for a party.  There was a soda mixing station and gourmet cookies and Chipotle catered food.  Each team that had a person leaving gave a gift and said kind words about the person leaving.

Kate (happily) isn't leaving the school but is leaving our team.  Janelle and I wrote a song about Kate to the tune of My Favorite Things.  (We had a LOT of help from Emma. The world needs artists.)  We recruited several other teachers to sing with us.

The first grade team had written lyrics to the Fresh Prince of Bel Air song for their intern that is leaving.  It was choreographed.

There are regular people and then there are elementary teachers.  

We watched a slide show with pictures from the year, mostly of faculty.  I almost cried again, but maybe I'm growing up, because I held it in.  

But I love those guys.

No one is there for the money or fame.  They are fueled by love and it's hard not to be uplifted when you're around such good people.

I feel lucky and grateful.