Picnicking and packing up

Well, folks, it is finished.

First year of teaching = over (as of Thursday).

Crazy!

I spent a few hours yesterday packing up my classroom for the summer...reflecting on memories from the year and making plans for next year.

Like the pen pal picnic.

The kids loved meeting their pen pals. We face-timed between classrooms the day before, to build anticipation. It worked! But then it's funny how, when the kids finally meet, they are so bashful. Mario and I have come upon a keeper. You can see from the photo that Oliver (and my mom) got to accompany us. Some of my girls loved doting on "Ms. Avila's little brother."

I was not able to find a picnic basket locally, and even online they were mostly out of stock. But that was okay. My aunt lent me her wonderful traditional picnic basket, and I have my eye on one that I want to buy for next year.

So ends the first episode of Ms. Avila: Fourth grade teacher.

Tune in next September for episode two. :)

In the meantime, summer holds some promising memories of its own...

Pen Pal Picnic and other news

My brother Mario and I have had this plan forming in our minds and conversations.

It's gone something like this:

Our pen pals need to meet.

Yeah. Not much of a plan.

You may or may not recall that Mario and I are both fourth grade teachers within the same school district, but at different schools. Also, since Christmas, his kiddos and my kiddos have been communicating via snail mail, a.k.a. pen pals.

And we have been trying to think of a way to get our kids together, in the same spot, at the same time, to MEET!

But it's been a little tricky to figure out -- no field trips together, lack of money for transportation, yada yada yada.

Earlier this week, however, as Mario and I were hiking together after school --- [side note: NO, we are NOT granolas] --- we hiked up to the top of a rock, from where we could see the entire river valley beneath us. We located his school...then my school...and then our brains started churning.

A couple of hours later, with the help of google maps, our plan was formed: Pen Pal Picnic!

Both classes will walk about a mile to a central park to meet, exchange our final pen pal letters, and picnic and play together!

Best idea ever, or what?

So, anyway, permission forms have been sent out and [mostly] returned, sack lunches have been ordered for those who aren't bringing a lunch from home, and I am in the process of locating a large picnic basket.

If I remember correctly, my friend Ellie had one....let me see here...ah, yes. Here it is:

But, this dear friend [and her picnic basket] is much too far away, so Target it is...or Walmart?

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In other news:

1. The state test is finished!

Each testing day, my students walked in to four items on their desks: a note from me, a small gift [pencil, correcting pen, pencil grip, pencil eraser], a small candy, and a stick of gum.

2. I am so enjoying knowing I will be here again next year!

We have sticky-note conversations in our staff bathrooms. I was blessed by this one.

Also, I am already thinking ahead to next year -- I've got some great ideas up my sleeve that I feel are God-inspired! But more on this later --- like once THIS school year is finished!

3. I am loving being a tia to this little girlie.

We got to have her for a couple of hours last night while Armando & Lisa went out to dinner. She is so precious!

4. I'm getting more and more excited for my next adventure with this lady:

North Dakota: Completed.

Michigan: Completed.

Prince Edward Island: In progress.

And, for today, that's a wrap.

Or a sandwich. PB&J. For the picnic. :)

Pen Pals

When you are in college,
enrolled in the teaching program,
reading about tons of super-fun ways to teach otherwise-monotonous stuff,
and excitedly exchanging ideas with like-minded, naive, and optimistic classmates,
you say to yourself,
"When I am a teacher, I will do THIS!
And THIS!
And THIS!
And THIS!
And..what the heck,
I'll also do THIS!"

And so you begin your first year of teaching with a head full of ideals, imagining 24 sweet smiles turned towards you, thrilled to discover that you are the most wonderful teacher ever and that learning in your classroom will be pure fun.

It is not long before your ideals are crushed.

After the first day of school, the "sweet smiles" become mischievous sneers, blank stares, or submissive terror.

Between making sure ADHD George is in his seat,
just-from-Mexico Juan and Lucia understand what they're supposed to be doing,
spacey Joey and Elijah are actually using their math tile to practice multiplication instead of building towers,
mean-girl Kate has apologized for making sensitive Julia cry,
and special-education Gary isn't just sitting there clueless,
you feel lucky if even one student demonstrates the skill you are teaching,
and any thought of idealistic, touchy-feely, hands-on, extra, fun stuff goes out the window, along with your temper.

I'm not exaggerating. At all.

So, I am happy to announce that I have managed to implement ONE of my college-days ideas - pen pals!

And the kids are LOVING it (plus it's such a sneaky way to teach about proper letter-writing format and the importance of punctuation, spelling, and grammar).

My two older brothers and I all happen to teach 4th grade this year (crazy, huh?) So, one day, my brother Mario and I were talking about the possibility of being buddy classrooms, and so the idea of pen pals was birthed.

I announced the idea to my class just before Christmas break, and they were thrilled with the idea! (Although more than a few were like, "What's a pen pal?") Our classes exchanged Christmas cards, and just this month Mario and I paired our kids up, and the letter-writing began. It was cool to see kids like Elijah, who reads at a 2nd grade level and spends most of his time at home playing video games, actually excited to write! He was even one of the more conscientious ones when it came to revising and editing his letter. He wanted it to be great for his pen pal!

We just sent the letters last week, through the school's delivery system, and Friday, at the end of the day, my kids got to open their pen pal letters.

Oh. My. Goodness! You would have thought it was Christmas morning. Hardly any of the kids were sitting down. They were walking around the classroom, hands clutched to their letters, earnestly reading the words aloud. After every sentence, they'd look up grinning and exclaim to the nearest body, "Oh, he likes soccer, too!" "Oh, my gosh! He's a dare-devil!" "Teacher, she likes Monster High!"

And now, as much as I hated to spend precious instruction time deviating form the writing curriculum to work on these letters, I have to say it was worth it.

I'm looking forward to continuing the letter-writing. Mario and I decided to try for exchanging letters once a month, so I'll have a couple of weeks' wait, and a couple of weeks of the daily, "When are we going to write back to our pen pals, teacher?"

But that's okay. I can't wait to start again, either.