Em N Ru: Last week of school

The past week was as busy as they come. Ruben had a few more tests to take to end the year, and he did excellent. All his scores were in the 4th grade range already! His year at Queen of Peace Catholic school ended with a field day. All the students played games and they had a big BBQ lunch. After that he got to ride bikes with the other students he liked at the YMCA after school program.
Next year he'll be attending Liberty Elementary School. Its a public school about 6 blocks from our apartment. Ru and I think it will be a better fit for him. He had a hard time with some aspects of Queen of Peace.


Biking to school on the last day.

My last days were busy, we had to completely pack the classroom so that the school can be remodeled over the summer. There were lots of activities to keep the students busy. We had assemblies, field day, short classes, yearbook signing, and lots of other stuff. We could barely contain ourselves.

One student with autism came up to me at the end of the year and gave me a very sincere and heartfelt thank you for allowing him to have more time in general education classes. I put my faith in him and it was rewarded. It was a great first year of teaching for me. As I was hugging students goodbye for the summer (most of them I'll have again next year) I told them to take off, I couldn't start crying till they were gone, and I waved them out the door with a hearty smile. After crumpling in my desk chair looking at the empty room I looked up to find three of them peering in the window to see if I was indeed crying. I wiped a tear away and winked at them. I wasn't sad, just overwhelmed. The past year has been overwhelming. And then with the sound of a school buzzer, a 5 minute whirlwind of activity and the blasting of Alice Cooper over the intercom it was all over.

Some pics of my last week: