School Finally Ends

I said over and over that those last forty days of school were a "slog," which is defined as a spell of difficult, tiring work. Yep, that word fits. It was weeks of dealing with challenging behaviors, performing numerous assessments, and completing unending paperwork. The students needed the steadiness of routine, and I needed to be consistent with expectations and follow through ~  all of it tough but necessary if we were going to meet our goals and keep the chaos at bay. I assessed reading levels, gave three writing prompts, and evaluated students' progress in several areas of math. Reading and writing assessments had to be scored and data had to be entered in spreadsheets. Then everything had to be interpreted so it made sense on report cards.

All the while I needed to get the room packed up so I could move the contents to a room at the other end of the building. It wasn't my job to move desks, chairs, and tables, but everything else was up to me. And I needed to do it before the last day because two other teachers needed to move their classroom into my space...while I was still teaching and maintaining some semblance of normalcy.

I made it all work and got it all done because I was laser focused when I was at school.

I had to be because I didn't want to miss a minute of the good stuff that was happening in life outside school. My younger son's wedding was the last weekend in May, and we were lucky to be able to help with a few of the preparations in the weeks before the wedding. My older son and his family came east mid-May to be part of the festivities and to visit with friends and family between Maine and Boston. Weekends were busy with my kids and grandkids, and I loved every minute of it. I soaked up the time we had together because I don't know when we will all have that much time together again.

The wedding weekend was perfect. I was so immersed in the joy of family that I took only a handful of pictures. I thought to take a photo as the reception was winding down, and I'm so glad I did. The bride and groom are still glowing, and I couldn't be happier for them ~