#1 Last Day!

Umm, so school is over. I don't need to plan any more lessons, grade any more papers, enter any more grades... it's weird. And hard to believe.

My goal was to get report cards out by the time of the awards thing tonight.  I made it! They went in mailboxes right at 6:00.  And I even filled out their yellow school record folders too!  Now I really don't have any schoolwork to do over the weekend.  They all remembered to pick up their report cards too.  Well, one student left hers behind, but I know she looked at it.

Even with a full last day of school (in the past we've ended at noon), I used all the time we had.  Religion, read aloud, reading buddies, BINGO prizes (9/10 got at least one bingo!), cleaning out desks, collecting the tomatoes from the beginning of the year (yes, they were disgusting... one of the glass jars leaked on the lab table, but my kiddos cleaned it up before I even noticed... the jars went right in the dumpster), opening our time capsules (comparing how much we've grown over the year), taking down posters/decorations, handing in books, and FINALLY opening the box of NaNos.

I had wrapped each book and put it back in the box, retaping it so it looked like the box hadn't been open.  Right before lunch today we sliced it open and passed out the books.  They opened them on the count of three... and everyone loved them! They kept saying over and over, "Wow Miss H! I love it! This is awesome!"  It was the best way to pass them out, I think.  This year, some of them had asked if they'd be able to get more copies of their books, so when I published them, I allowed the books to be visible on Amazon and Createspace.  My kiddos were super excited to hear this and immediately made plans on how to spend the millions of dollars book sales were going to generate... They were only mildly disappointed when I said the money we earned from selling copies of their books would go to buy more books from the classroom.

They must've told their parents about it because by the time we got back from closing chapel, one person had already looked up her book on Amazon and found it.  She told me tonight that she sold two copies already! (Her uncle bought one).  At school, some of them were arguing over whose book was better because one cost $5 while everyone else's cost $4.  Well, that's just because the $5 girl wrote way more so her book is bigger.  Anyway, I'd say NaNo was a success this year!

Another cute thing happened today at lunch.  As per usual, I sat on the bleachers finishing my lunch, but then a 7th grader came up to me kind of covertly and said, "So Miss H, last weekend me, [a 7th grader, another 7th grader, and another 7th grader] had been by the pond in Courtland and we found a dead baby turtle. So do you want it?"  Oh it still makes me laugh!  I said, "Sure!" So then he went and got it, kind of sneakily digging it out of his pocket (it was in a ziplock bag and was very dried and very dead).  We looked at it for a while, and then he said, "When we found it, I thought of you."  Aww! I'm glad I'm the kind of teacher that kids think about when they find cool things in nature.

Tonight's potluck/awards night/carnival was a hit.  We did it inside due to the chilly weather; the 7th and 8th grade parents planned everything so I didn't have to do anything to set up.  Nice!  The school board gave all us teachers a nice thank-you at the awards night, which resulted in a standing ovation.  Afterwards as I mingled, two sets of grandparents came up to me to tell me how much they appreciate me as a teacher here at Immanuel.  The one grandpa brought me to tears with all his kind words!

I don't think the fact that school is over will sink in for a while... there were a few students who didn't want the year to end (ahem, the 6th grade girls).  They're not ready to be 7th graders, they said.  After school, some of them stuck around to help their parents set up for the carnival.  They popped leftover microwave popcorn from the 7/8th class trip and offered me some.  As we chatted for a bit, the 8th grader said, "Yeah, we've just been using this as a snack at school. I mean, why not? It's fast and easy!"  One of the 6th grade girls chimed in, "Hey! Miss H! We should do that for our snack!" The 8th grader and I just stared at her until I finally said, "That's a great idea, but, we're not having any more snack... school is over."  She looked at me blankly until it sunk in, "Oh! Whoops!" Not even two hours after we dismissed and she'd already forgotten school was out for the summer!