Last Day of School

At last!!!! Finally!!!! Right?

In a few minutes, my 6th graders will come through the doors of my classroom for the last time. Many of them I will see for the last time. I have seen them all grow so much. When they walked into my room in August, they were little 6th graders. Now as they come in to take their last final, they are practically 7th graders. They've also grown intellectually. They write opinion essays, they identify themes, they use possessive nouns (a big deal with English Language Learners). I have a student that came to class the first day and did not know any English. Now he has extended conversations with me and reads full paragraphs and understands them. And I don't think I can take any credit for any of this. It seems like the intellectual growth and physical growth happened together, gradually and naturally developing throughout the year.

Today is the last day of my first year of teaching. I'm not going to say it was easy, and it definitely was not what I thought it would be. But it has prepared me for next 40 or so years of teaching I have ahead of me, God willing.

This is a pretty important day.