Teacher Appreciation Week

Today kicks off a very special week.  A fun, upbeat, awesome week.  Teacher Appreciation Week.  Technically, tomorrow is National Teacher Appreciation Day, but many schools celebrate the entire week long.

Even though this is my first year of teaching, I've been blessed enough to be included in Teacher Appreciation festivities for the past two years.  Last year as a teacher's assistant, and the year before as a student teacher.  Both were in different school districts.

As awesome as this week will be, my memory reminds me that the past two years I also gained about 10lbs during the course of Teacher Appreciation Week.  There's always so much food!

Last year, we had a  lunch catered, one provided by volunteers, and a pot luck.  That's not to mention the cake and candy that was showered upon us.  The year before?  Same thing...lots of special lunches, candy gifts, and various nom-noms.

On Friday, my principal made the announcement at the end of the day that she and the assistant principal will be cooking up a pancake breakfast for the teachers as they arrive this morning.  See, there you go... food from the start.  Am I complaining? Oh, heck no.  I'm a realist.  I know I'm going to have my cake AND eat it too.

I'm not sure what other festivities will take place this week, but I know it will be a lot of fun.

It's so hard to believe that there are only 12 days left of school.  On Friday afternoon, after a morning of testing, I let my kids spend the afternoon reading.  They brought blankets and pajamas and got cozy around the classroom with a book in hand.  It was a cold, rainy afternoon - so it was perfect.

I put on Pandora, so they had some soft music to listen to while they read.  Then, that song from the last Twilight movie came on.  It's called A Thousand Years by Christina Perri.  It's a beautiful song.  As I sat at my desk listening, all of a sudden my eyes started to fill with tears.  I looked around the room, at my beautiful sweet students and it hit me.  I only have two more weeks left with my babies.

The chorus is when I started getting misty eyed:

I have died every day
Waiting for you
Darlin' don't be afraid
I have loved you 
For a thousand years
I'll love you for a thousand more.

And then the last verse, full blown tears...

And all along I believed
I would find you
Time has brought 
Your heart to me
I have loved you for a thousand years
I'll love you for a thousand more

Thinking how long it took for me to get my first classroom and my first class, this song says it perfectly.  There were days it felt like a thousand years since I'd started working towards my goal.  I actually had to get up and walk out of my room because I was in tears.  I've gotten so attached to the sweet faces that are in my room every day.  I've grown accustomed to our afternoons of having fun, our discussions, helping with group projects, and their ability to sit and read or work on something quietly without being asked.

I know that I will love each and every one of my future classes.  But, this is my first class.  My first set of kids.  And they have all been so good to me.  I was so lucky with this class....no "new teacher curse" of getting a class full of difficult students for me.  Each child is super sweet and kind and well behaved - in their own ways.

This weekend, I started looking back at all the pictures I've taken of them this year.  I realized that I have several, but not near enough with me in them.  I need to work on doing that this week...getting pictures of me with my students.  Then, I'm going to make a montage of our time together to that very song to play for them on the last day of school.

I know I'll bawl like a baby - and they'll probably laugh at me because of it.  It's not the same for them.  I'm the 5th teacher these kids have had - some have had even more.  They are used to the routine:  Put in a year, move on to another.

But, before they leave my classroom, they will know how important they have been to me, and how important they will always be for me.  They will forever be my first class.

So, as I'm being appreciated this week along with my teaching cohorts - I will also be doing my best to let my students know how much I appreciate them.  They have made this year such a wonderful year...one that I will never forget.