saying goodbye

 My 3rd year of teaching has come to an end and it is so bittersweet for me. I have loved teaching for these past 3 years and am really going to miss it. I am so excited to stay home with our baby girl, but it will definitely be a change for me. I am a busy body and active person. I feel like I always need to be doing something to feel productive and happy. I know I will be busy with a baby, but it's going to be a different busy. It won't be like interacting with 26 six-year-olds for 8 hours of my day. It won't be multitasking with 10 million different things at once like tying a shoe, while spelling "awesome" out loud for a student, while nodding to a student that "yes" he may use the restroom while he shows me the sign I taught them, while telling another kid to sit in his chair for the 5th time, while smiling at a student's art work and trying my hardest to show my interest and care for her detailed coloring in the lines. Yes, I know I will be busy, but I am really going to miss my kiddos and teaching! I had such a great class this year and it will be a nice note to end on.
    These last few months, we have done some pretty cool things. We hatched caterpillars into butterflies and tried to incubate some baby chick eggs. The eggs didn't work out as well (I turned the heat up too much and fried the poor eggs in the incubator:(... so we adopted some baby chicks from the feed store! We name our chicks Midnight, Speedy and Sunset. Midnight only stayed with us 3 days and died.. so sad! But the kids loved holding and petting these guys while we had them!

Kids from other classes would come into our classroom before and after school to see our baby chicks!

 I love this drawing a student did of Sunset and Speedy happy and standing up and of "pour midnight" dead beside them!:)

I cleaned out my room last week and left it like this... I don't think I will forget the feeling of turning off the lights and shutting the door for the last time. Such great memories and such a great experience for me to be able to teach. I have a special place in my heart for education and teaching our children not only academics, but the ways of life! I will truly miss it!