Today my classroom began as a whirlwind of activity. Parent volunteers made large tissue paper flowers to adorn the auditorium for the fifth grade culmination, children sang several funny alphabet songs, votes on the new contract proposal were tallied, and smiling kindergarten faces were uploaded from my camera to Costco. And I inadvertently saved the photos to my desktop as a screen-saver/slide-show.
In the flurry of all this activity, I kept misplacing things like my phone and the voting sign-in sheets. And I realized just how chaotic my classroom is post-culmination. Next week, I'll organize and pack up my classroom to ready it for summer cleaning 'crews' but today, boxes are everywhere awaiting the 22nd.
As the school day closed, the ballots were delivered, the photos were being processed, and the auditorium was nearly ready for tomorrow's festivities.
As things wound down, I reflected on the smiling faces that were flashing across the iMac. I thought about the children who they had been during the first weeks of the school year. I thought about the funny things they said and did, the teeth that they lost, the laughs they had, and the tears they cried. It had been a very trying year, starting with several extra students and being mandated by my principal in a manner that does little to suit the needs of active five year old children, but somehow we muddled through. In two days they'll leave the Munchkinland that is kindergarten and become first graders.
World, look out!
