End of the year ramblings

Although my summer vacation started almost two weeks ago, my brain still has a hard time remembering that. I still find myself thinking about my students at times and things that happened throughout the year. So I thought I'd share a few of those moments with you-

Favorite quotes from the year::
-Far too often I say or do something that my students quickly notice.
One day, I said,"Oh, my" without really thinking.
Student replied: "What?"
Me: "My head hurts."
Student: "From water?"
Me: "No, but I should drink some."
Student: "Drink water for a healthy head!" :)

That same student once said (to me),
"I smell your breath."
"Doesn't it smell very good?" I asked.
"No," she admitted.
"It probably smells like coffee. What should I do about it?"
"Drink more coffee."
She didn't have to tell me twice!

Most of my students enjoy singing so it's not unusual for me to hear them singing randomly throughout the day. One day I overheard the Veggie Tales theme song..."Broccoli, sour cream..." That one made me laugh! I had to inform her that it's actually celery, not sour cream. :)

The last week of school we were able to witness a small miracle of sorts. In the middle of class, a student said, "Look! A butterfly!" I couldn't believe what I was hearing so I spun my head around and sure enough, there it was! The butterfly that I had deemed dead weeks ago was anything but. We were beyond thrilled that it made its appearance before school ended for the year. After letting its wings dry several hours, we released it and this time our pet flew off without any little fingers coming in to squish it. :) You can read more about that here.

We named this smaller butterfly Little Flower, since it was "pretty like a flower." They thought that was an appropriate name to go along with Rainbow, the name of our first butterfly.

What the students had to say about Little Flower:
-The girl who first noticed it said, "I look over and I saw it coming out! I think it's pretty. I think he's so wet!"
-(Whispering) "He might find the other one (butterfly.) The other one is far away."
-"I love it!"
-"Wonderful (butter)'fly!"
-One of our students uses sign language and he signed that he wanted it to 'fly.'

When I asked what they learned about patience from all of this:
-"Patience means sit down really quiet; wait for your teacher's ready. Patience has to wait."

That wasn't quite the answer I was anticipating, but it has much application to life. Being still and quiet; trusting and waiting for the help of others; patience is waiting.

All in all, the caterpillars to butterflies experiment was a wonderful one. The students were begging to do it again next fall so we shall see what happens.

One last thought:

My students know how to encourage me. I received both of these cards from the same student the last week of school. The card on the right reads,
"Miss Janelle,
Hope you have a good day.
I like you.
Math is fun."

And notes like that have a way of making my day! As she encouraged me, I was reminded of the power of encouragement. Big or little, we are called to bless those others. What a challenge for all of us.

Happy summer!