The End of the Year

Sorry it has been awhile, it was the end of the school year and that means crazy busy. I had a very interesting school year, my first time to have the same kids all day, all year and it was an experience. There are no perfect kids and I don't expect that but I am amazed at how troubled some kids can be and how crazy their lives can be but they are so loving and fun. The last month I had a chance to reflect on my year and here are some things that I realized.....if you focus on the negatives that is all you will see and if you can take some time to have fun with kids it will be worth it in the end. I think this is important for students and even for your own kids. When you are always dealing with the negatives of the behavior then you get so caught up in the negatives. You also focus on those kids with the naughty behavior and those "good" kids get overlooked or they blend into the background.

I was tired of rewarding the "naughty" kids for making the right choices that my other students always make, so I worked hard to reward those good kiddos too! One thing that I found I really enjoyed was taking time out of my day to eat lunch with a small group of them. I really, really enjoyed that time! I got to know more about them and they got to know me. We also had a chance to go on a couple of trips the last week of school, we went to the park for the afternoon and we went swimming one afternoon. The kids had so much fun and the normal rules of school were out the window....so I didn't feel like I had to micro-manage behavior.

So, my rules for next year are take time to have fun and appreciate my kids for their positives and celebrate those positives.

On a side note, I handed out awards to my kids on the last day and they complained about their awards! Who does that?! I do have to say the fun/silly award was appreciated and so I think I will go with fun and silly next year....we'll see if first grade likes silly. I have a feeling the will.