Woohoo! I'm done! Sorry, I've actually been done for two weeks now, I just haven't really updated my blog. Several people have been asking how my last week of school was.
Monday-this was the day of my field trip that I'd been planning, and it went great. The beginning part was a little crazy, but after that it really went quite smoothly. I had been worried about it raining, but it was beautiful for us while we were there, and about two hours after it was over it was pretty stormy (thanks Heavenly Father!). We went to the Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur Museum, and the students seemed to enjoy that. We also watched one of the 3-D movies they have there, which was okay. It actually gave me a headache. We ate lunch outside, and then headed back. It was great to have over, I'll tell you that. The parents that came along were great, and the bus drivers were good too. Besides some students having a hard time cleaning up after they ate lunch, it was great.
One student thanked me that day, and two thanked me the following day. :-)
Tuesday-We did a couple of different activities, one being some anagram shapes that they had to use those seven shapes to make different forms and models of things. It's quite a challenge, actually, and I was surprised at some of the students that really liked it and did really well with it. We also did some brain teasers.
Wednesday-Today was the day that I made the whole school stink. I was having each of the students make what I call an 'ocean in a bottle' with denatured alcohol and paint thinner. It turns out that paint thinner has a strong enough odor to spread through a school rather quickly. Oops. Oh, well, the kids liked the results. :-) We also made cartesian divers, which are floating things in a bottle and you squeeze the bottle and the floater will sink to the bottom. It was fun.
Thursday and Friday-Yearbook days. I think we were supposed to keep kids in class (at least on Thursday), but they really refused to stay. Even after I implemented pretty harsh penalties, students (even my good ones!) were 'sneaking' out of class. Of course, by about 4th period students were just not coming to class. Friday was about the same. I got a yearbook for kids to sign, and some of them wrote the sweetest things. One kid took a picture of me holding his yearbook after I had just signed it on Thursday, and he gave me that picture in a frame as a parting gift on Friday. :-) Friday was also cleaning day. Kids love to climb on counters and things to get stuff down, and there were even kids quite willing to scrape gum off the underside of tables. They can be nice when they want to. My husband came with me on Friday to help clean, and he didn't have to do too much because I had so much help from students. I was done with time to spare, which was nice. Then we had our teacher banquet where I received a plaque for the "years" of hard work at Elk Ridge (which, I think people don't deserve to have a plaque given to them until they have been working at a place at least 5 years), and then got signed out. I was sad to lose my laptop that I have enjoyed a lot, but oh well. And that was it!
Life moves quick. It is amazing how the small little "Thank you's" from students makes it all worth it. You have impacted all of those children for good I am sure! I have teachers that I remember from Jr. High and they really did make a huge difference. Those are some hard years. Way to go Karen! I am seriously impressed with ya! I hear the first year of teaching is the hardest.
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