School's Out for Summer!

Ah! School is out! I am done with my first year of teaching and am no longer a rookie. This year flew by incredibly quickly. I am in awe at speed at which the months came and went. I have accumulated so much knowledge and so many memories in the past nine months. I am ready for summer. I have been feeling anxious the last few weeks. At the same time, I have been reluctant to hand this group of seventh grade students over. I was blessed with a wonderful group of students. I had my share of chatters and my advisory most definitely gave me some challenges, but all in all, I could not be more grateful for the students that I had this year and for what they taught me. I have said it many times before, but they were a lifeline in an otherwise very difficult year for me. They gave me a gift that they had no knowledge they were giving.

I think it's funny that in September I said I would post a picture of my "very first classroom" and here I am at the end of the year, and still haven't posted one. Maybe in a few days:) I thought I would use my blog as a way to post a few memories/excerpts from my first year of teaching, in part for you to enjoy, and for me to remember:)

*The very first day that I was there was a staff day and Paul (our Principal) had us play a game called "I've never..." All of our chairs were set in a circle. When it was your turn you had to stand up and say "I've never..." and then you had to finish the sentence with something you've never done. Everyone else was to remain in their seats, but if the speaker named something that the speaker had never done before but THEY had, then they had to get out of their seat and run to a new seat. Each time the removed a seat so that you lost a person each time. Anyway, I was one of two new teachers, and the staff at my school is very small and so I was feeling a little bit nervous about fitting in. The part of this game that I will always remember is when the counselor stood up and said, "I've never drank a beer in my life." Only two people stood up at that point and I remember thinking to myself, "What have I gotten myself into?"

*Reading over the shoulder of student as they were writing and coming across something that struck me as incredibly funny. I laughed so hard that I cried. Luckily this student had a good sense of humor and was able to laugh with me.

*Dress like your favorite teacher day when everyone who dressed like me was dressed in nearly all black.

*Melaney's inquisition of Jim when we went Portland:)

*I made the mistake once of telling one of my advisory students if he really had a problem with reading during advisory that he could take it up with the principal and then had him promptly storm out my room and to the principal's office. That will be the last time I use that threat. He most definitely called my bluff.

*One of my students telling Ken he looked like a rapper:) That just made me laugh.

*Scattergories.

*The day I drew a stick figure of myself on the board with curly hair (large curly hair) and one of my student asked me if my stick figure ever had a hard time playing hide and seek.

*The science fiction short story one of my students wrote that was titled "Mrs. Dietz is a Robot". In it I'm a robot who is trying to not expose my secret of being a robot to the Principal. I brought my students brownies every day and I had a Mrs. Dietz human suit that I changed into.

*Recently a student wrote a paper where he said that when I taught I made him feel like the smartest kid in the class. It completely warmed my heart.

*How excited my 7/8 period class got when they made our high school T.A. graduation cards and how heartfelt their messages were.

These are really just a few. There are so many more and I hope that I sit down and type up more when I have the time. This school year has been wonderful. I feel like I've found a school that's a good fit for me.





As far as summer goes, Amanda will be coming to visit in less than two weeks, which I am really excited about! Then, in July we will be driving to the Nebraska/Colorado area to see Ken's family.

Ha! If I were to grade this blog post using the six traits, I do not think I would score it will in organization. This was by far a very lame conclusion! :)