End of School Year

So the school year is winding down and as always, the demands on teachers seem to increase instead of a nice gentle decline into the summer.  Yesterday I had a major breakdown when I heard that the dreaded inventory of classroom materials also meant that everything had to be sorted into "theirs" vs. "mine".  Oh well, I  guess I'll live through it. 

Then came the notification that for the last two weeks of school, we would again (like several years ago) serve breakfast to the students in the classroom.  For those of you scratching your head...it goes something like this.  If your district receives federal/state funding for free and reduced lunches for all students, then a certain percentage of students must partake of the free breakfast program.  Seems that with the  affluency our area students are enjoying due to the  oil field boom, not enough students are eating breakfast at school.  Nobody asked me, but I really don't think that is why our breakfast numbers are down...it's because of students not gettting to school on time...i.e. more and more tardy students mean less kids eating breakfast. So now our students must eat breakfast between 7:45-8:00 and then we clean up the mess and start our class day.  Oh well...at least I know how to do this because of prior experience. (And next year we get to serve it everyday!)

The great  thing about school winding down is this:  all of a sudden the students realize that they love you!  I've gotten hugs, "I Love You!" and lots of lovey pictures from the kids the last few days.  And at least for alittle while, the kids realize that you do mean something to them and that they will miss you.

I have really enjoyed how smart this group of students have been and know that they will do well in first grade, but it is time for our association to end.  They have outgrown me and the kindergarten experience.
I went and talked to one of the pre-kindergarten classes today to give them the low-down on what lies ahead for them.  They weren't so sure they were ready for me!

I'm ready to be just Mary, wife, mother, grandma, and daughter (to my folks for awhile)....come on summer!