Time Flies

Time has just been flying. I've been trying to tell myself I need to update at least twice a week, but with the end of school coming so soon, I'm not sure that will happen as much as I'd like. I can't believe the weeks are passing by! This time next week I'll be having an ice cream party with the kids and we'll be goofing around, waiting for Thursday - when we get to go to Adventureland :) I just seriously cannot believe it. I knew people would say my first year would fly by, but who knew? I feel like the years are going to go by even faster.

This past week hasn't been filled with much. I was busy covering for a co-worker who had gullbladder surgery last week so I haven't had my prep time, which is usuallly when I sit down and update. We've been spending a lot of time outside, as well as getting the bikes out and making a few laps around town at night (Josh and I call it "night riding"). The dogs and I have been taking several walks around town, but until they get tick medicine on them we'll be keeping it short - Josh found a tick on his arm yesterday! It's that time of year.

The weekend calls for 80's, and Josh is helping my parents shingle so hopefully that goes by fast! I'm hoping if it is really nice Sunday and the roof gets finished we can get the boat out! We've had several grad parties to go to so our weekend was pretty filled, but other than that I'm just winding down the year. The kids made a little packet and some of them filled out cards to say thanks to the teachers. I'll read you a few of mine:

-"You were a great teacher. I'm glad to have you next year. I hope you had a good first year."
-"It is nice to get a new teacher! Thank you for putting up with me and my classmates. We all like you very much. You think of cool, funky ideas!"
-"Thank you for coming to our school for teaching. I think you are a great teacher, I can't wait until next year!"
- "Thank you for all of the lovely work you have given me (sarcasm). You are a really cool teacher. (Not sarcasm). " haha
-"You've taught me so much in the past year than I had learned in the past three :)"
-"Thank you for the knowledge to move on in the world!!"
-"Thanks for being the coolest teacher ever. Thanks for putting up with all of us and keeping your cool. I'm very thankful"

And my personal favorite. This one is from a student that is so, so, SO smart, but he just has no motivation. He loves reading, he's great at comprehending, he's really above his classmates with his learning process, but he just won't ever DO anything. It's like pulling teeth to get the kid to write anything!! But, I refuse to let him just slide by, so after several detentions and early mornings, he'll finally get things in. But he wrote on to me that said:

"Thank you for being patient with me and not giving up hope. Thanks for coming to our school."

I was beyond words. I think it's things like that where they really do notice that you care and aren't just coming down hard on them is what really got me. This seriously made my whole day!

So I'm going to be writing them "Thank you" cards with an individual message in each one. Haven't decided if I'll do one for the 7th grade yet (maybe I'll just make it an 8th grade tradition?) And just tell the 7th graders thank you as a whole and then next year I'll write them their own individual cards, too. We'll see. But nevertheless, it made my Wednesday amazing - it made all the frustrations and worries of the year pass. :) I'm ready to end the year on a good note!