22/52

Tomorrow is the start of my last week of school. I have three days of meetings the following week, but the kids are finished this Friday. Time moves slowly until you think about in the past -- then I'm always so surprised with how much time has gone by. In a lot of ways summer break is bittersweet. It's nice because vacation is always nice. But it's strange to know I won't have the same group of kids in the fall. Obviously, since they grow up. I'm fortunate because I have children in my classroom for three years in a row. So, only nine kids will move onto first grade. The rest will move up a level to kindergarten or to their second year in my classroom. And then the nine kindergartners that moved on will be replaced by a bunch of teeny tiny three year olds. It's always weird. Every year, I think "oh man, I can't imagine this class without THIS exact group of kids". And then every fall, new children come and it's so seamless and I feel sad that it was so easy to move on. But it has to be. Or else they'd never grow up -- see? Bittersweet.

I've spent more time in this role as a teacher than I've done anything else in my life, ever. The fact that I'm finishing up my fifth year -- and that my contract is in and I'm all set to start my sixth year in the fall blows me away. Looking back, it's been a pretty amazing year. It was my first year co-teaching. It was my first year of being a supervising teacher. It was my first year of being a level coordinator. It was a year that consisted of 3 field trips, 25 birthday celebrations, 70 parent/teacher conferences, 130 "good morning" songs, and hundreds of lessons. 

While I'm finishing up five years as a teacher, Sean is finishing up seven years at his job before he starts a new job June 16th. It's a welcomed change. He's taking a leap, and switching companies -- about to start working for a start-up. He's looking forward to the change of pace and about working from home twice a week. I'm very proud and slightly jealous of this whole working from home thing. And then I remembered that in 8 days, I'll be home for three months straight. And I simply cannot wait.