End of the Year

Each year I try to end on a good note with the teachers. They are such a huge part of making my program successful and many of them make sacrifices to their own time in order to reinforce my lesson topics beyond my brief sessions with students.

This year, I took my final lesson time to make a class gift for the teacher. The students used their thumbs and an ink pad to add colorful "leaves" to the tree I created ahead of time. The resulting artwork was attractive and many teachers got teary-eyed when I gave them their gift. This was an activity that was definitely worth the time and effort.

Here is the finished product. Full-disclosure, I got the idea from Pinterest (I'm actually incapable of coming up with good ideas on my own now that I have a Pinterest account!) You can find the original idea here.

Monday Encouragement to Teachers

Occasionally the year feels like it is being moved along by elderly turtles. On Mondays that are especially tough (like the week of standardized testing), I like to send out Monday Encouragement emails to the teachers at my three schools. This is the one from this week.

Let It Go: Teacher Style 

(to the tune of “Let it Go” from Frozen)

The sun glows bright out the windows today

not a rainstorm to be seen.

My students are barely quiet,

They’ve forgotten I’m the queen.

Energy is raging like a swirling storm inside,

they can’t keep it in, heaven knows I’ve tried.

“Don’t touch that thing!” --  “Just let it be!”

“Be the good girls and boys I know you used to be!”

Conceal, don’t scream, don’t let them know….

Well, now they know…

Six more weeks, six more weeks --

Until the school year is no more.

Six more weeks, six more weeks --

Turn away and drink some more Coke.

I don’t care what they’re going to say

Let the students rage on…

Their energy never bothered me anyway