School Ends

Since this was my last year of teaching, I thought I should post of few pictures of what I do during a school year.  I save at least one art project and one writing project for each month.  The next few pictures show work in reading, science, social studies and math.   Because I had a combination 1-2 this year I have a large variety of work.  Very few projects did the whole class do the same.  However, when it was time to write they were all writing.  When it was art, I had two projects going on at the same time.  Sometimes it was really crazy. This was what my classroom looked like for open house.  It was very time consuming. Even when I took them to computer lab, their activities or programs were different.   The things we did together were P.E. and recorders.  Yes, I was the only teacher to teach recorders. 

 Once open house was over, I had the task of taking down all the projects and putting them in an end of the year book.  I included the other projects that were not up for open house.  The pool table made for a great place to organize.  I think there were close to forty pages for each group.  This only shows the the first graders.  I organized the second graders' books on the dinning room table.  Thank goodness this goes on for just a short while.  The downstairs bedroom was where I stored the finished work until it was time to collate.

For lack of a better word, this is the trophy I received from the district for my 20 years of service.  I had another 3 years in Roland district.  That makes 23 years.  Yes, Sara was just 2 when I went back to teaching.  I would have loved to be an at home mom.  At least I had my summers with my family and most the holidays were the same.   I loved teaching children to read, write and do math and introduce them to science and social studies.  I learned a lot with computers, but sometimes they knew more than me.  It is exciting to see the spark in their eyes when they see what they are learning.  I don't like doing report cards, or the other paper work or disciplining. Sometimes parents were a pain too.  I loved my coworkers.  They were always there with suggestions.  I think that is why our school did so well on the state testing. 

These last pictures are examples of the field trips we went on and some of the fun days we had.  Kellogg House, pajama day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Dr. Seuss' Birthday, Brea Tar Pit, Cabrillo Aquarium