I Made It...

...through my first year as a working mom. 

It was trying at times. Ultimately, it was extremely rewarding. Rewarding to the point that when Kevin mentioned something about me not having to work in a few years, I internally panicked. 

My class was huge so much fun. Not to say that there weren't some bumps along the way, but we made it. It was the perfect group to come back to. They had a great sense of humor, lots of motivation, and were bursting with creativity. I will miss them. (Even though I hear next year's class is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!)

Right now, I have my feet up and I'm ready to read my first "big person book" of the summer. 

Here's to another successful school year in the books!

Appreciated

This week is Teacher Appreciation Week. 

I was going to write a post about how under-appreciated we feel, how people have misconceptions about the teaching profession, and what being a teacher is really like. 

But none of that is important.

What is important is that I love what I do. I don't think there is anything else I could do that would give me the same feeling I get when my kids get it. Or the one I get when a kid jumps two reading levels within the course of a year. Or the one I get when I hear my students tell me how much they missed me when I had a substitute the day before.

Or even the one I got this morning, when a parent of one of my students sent me a link to this blog post he wrote for our local newspaper.

Yep. I feel pretty appreciated right about now. And it's things like that post that make me feel like all that other stuff is just stuff, and what I do makes a difference.