Yesterday ended the 2009-2010 school year for my students and I! I cannot believe the time has already come and gone to say goodbye to my first-ever class, even though I have only been their teacher since January. Those 5 1/2 months sure did fly! I am proud of each one of my students and the progress they have all made in their own ways in the months that I have been their teacher and my prayer is that they will do even BETTER in middle school! I have invested a lot of time mentally preparing my students for middle school and the changes they will face and decisions that they will have to make about WHO they want to be. I want so badly for them to make good choices in their lives and to realize that it is up to them to create the way for themselves by doing well in school. Unfortunately, most of the students at the school I work at don't live in healthy households where there are two parents who love and provide for them in a way that a mom and dad should. Simply put. There aren't ANY excuses not to parent your child and step up to the plate and take responsibility. I could go on and on because I have such a passion for children and it hurts me to see children living in unstable situations. Oh I have such a burden on my heart for these children! One thing I know: teaching at this kind of a school in the neighborhood it is in only makes my job more important.
Anyway...Monday was our big day for 5th graders. We had a Spelling Bee, a Luau dance party, a special lunch and cake, and then an awards ceremony to end the day. What fun it was! I remember my 5th grade graduation like it was yesterday. I told my students before I announced their awards that I'll never forget my first class and the many improvements they made since January and that is the truth! My first half-year teaching was nothing short of a challenge and at times I didn't know if I was doing the right thing but I had to keep on and rely on God to get me through with His strength and He did provide! He gave me the passion to teach and I want to honor Him in all aspects of my career! Many times I have said to myself, "If I got through with this class, surely I can get through with any future class!" Ha! I am thankful for the challenge this class was for me though because without it, I wouldn't have grown at all as a teacher. But in all of the behavior issues I dealt with, I had to do a lot of self-reflecting to see what I was doing to make sure it was working and if it wasn't, I needed to try something new. That happened a lot! Ha! I know I'm not nearly close to "figuring it all out" either, because each child is different and I'm sure (I KNOW) there will be another behavior challenge I'll have the pleasure of dealing with! :)
On Tuesday it was another fun and relaxing day. The kids watched Toy Story 2 which they loved and I did too because I was able to organize! Ha! Since I took over a classroom in the middle of the year, I did not have time to make the room my own, I just had to make do with how it was. So finally I was able to throw a lot of stuff out, stuff that the old teacher still had from the year I was BORN! Ha! That definitely needed to go, education has improved/changed drastically since then! The afternoon ended with a tennis tournament in which several of my students were involved and the student who won was in my class and so was his opponent! I'm very proud of them!
Wednesday started with a Staff vs. Student Kickball Game! That was a huge hit and most classes were out there! It was a lot of fun! My class had the most points out of the other 5th grade classes-yeah!!!! Haha, all in good fun! After the kickball game, I went to get popsicles out of the freezer and was able to provide 4 classes with popsicles out of the 100 I had in the box! That made for some happy students! :)
After popsicles, we headed back to the classroom for our "mystery reader" who was my mom! I had the students guess who she was before I told them. They loved guessing! My mom read to them and then I had scheduled one of our PE coaches to come in and give my students a middle school pep-talk because he used to work at the middle school that most of my students are attending. They had lots of their questions answered about middle school. I am so excited for them but I know they are nervous. It'll be a good change for them! The end of the day came so fast! I let my students who wanted to go to P.E. and then 4 girls chose to stay and hang out in the classroom with me and my mom as we took more stuff down! Before long it was time for the final goodbye! I got a little bit teary-eyed but I kept it together! Up to this point, it has not hit me that the year is over but soon it will and I'll probably shed a few tears. Ha! I have come to accept the emotional side of me! ;)
I wish ALL of my students good luck in middle school! I hope that I'll run into them in the future or that they'll come visit me. I think it's gonna be so fun (and make me feel old) to see how much they change over these next few years! This world is a tough place and it's much easier to travel down the troublesome path than it is to travel down the positive one but I truly hope my students will steer clear of anything that could possibly hurt their future!
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