I just spent an hour looking at the last days of the year; this happy teacher almost cried. It’s a good thing I have friends that understand me; my loving neighbor Courtney just reminded me I have the perfect amount of time. She knows the routine this time of year; she’s even seen the actual tears that come the week after the last days of school. Feel free to laugh at me; I recognize the strangeness of that last sentence.
Don’t get me wrong; I’m itching for summer and days without alarm clocks. I know the importance of summer and the refreshment it brings to my teaching. However, there is something in me around this time of year that doesn’t want to leave.
I fall in love with the kids in my classroom and the relationships we build. And for as much as I hate planning lessons and spending what seems like every free moment of my time reading journals— I miss it.
And so as I carefully plan these last 38 days of school I’m asking myself the questions I ask so often when I conference with my writers, “What’s really important here?” and “That matters because . . .” and “So what you’re really trying to say is . . . “
Here is my list of what matters in these last days of school.
- Celebrating their writing
- Treasuring language that moves us
- Recognizing and Pushing through difficult writing/reading
I’ll let you know how my mini-lessons go . . .