Finally Friday

What a long day! What a long week!

Today was supposed to be our end of the year celebration with our students. We were going to take the kids outside and let them run wild for a couple of hours. However, when I got to school this morning there had been a monsoon overnight and it was still raining! Oh well, change of plans...Wait, I had no other plans! Being the resourceful teachers we are, we popped in a movie and let the students watch the movie, sign their yearbooks, play UNO, play board games, and essentially do a lot of nothingness, but socialize! They were actually pretty good considering there was not much structure!

However, after about 3 1/2 hours of nothingness and socializing, I was getting restless! Us teachers kept talking about things we could get our students to do instead of be noisy, but in the end, we continued on with the nothingness/socializing!!!

At the end of the day, we ordered pizza for our kids. We took them down to the cafeteria and let them eat pizza, drink soda, and sign yearbooks! It was organized chaos. We, as structured teachers, were on edge because of the noise they were creating and the unstructured activity of the day.

In the end it was all worth it when a student came up to us and said sincerely "Thank you so much for everyithing today! It has been so much fun and we have never gotten the chance to just have a good time like this!!!" Almost brought tears to my my eyes.

That is the moment I remembered why I am a teacher. It is all about the kids! Doing what is best for them, no matter the cost to my pocket, my ears, or sanity!!!!!
Sometimes as a teacher, we are so focused on what we think is best for the children and we don't realize that they are children needing to be treated like children. Many times I find myself expecting them to make adult decisions when they are only little kids.

Thank you Lord for teaching me this lesson today!!!!

Psalm 107:1
Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!