Goodbye School Year, Hello Summer!

 I honestly cannot believe we've only been out of school for 1 1/2 weeks. We've already been on 2 weekend trips, played a few baseball games and went on a day trip to the beach. I have been excited about this Summer for awhile because we're making up for not being able to do anything last Summer (Thanks, Covid!) so I want to make it as fun as possible for the boys. 

While I was excited for Summer, in ways it was hard to end the school year. I would've thought that I would be doing the Happy Dance the last day because it was such a rough year, both as a parent and as a teacher. As a parent it was hard to watch our oldest stop enjoying school. Middle school wasn't all it had promised to be due to COVID. P had to do virtual learning for 2 weeks of the year thanks to Covid restrictions and getting the flu. He struggled with grades and often woke up grumpy, not wanting to go to school. It broke my heart to watch this because he's never been like this. So in that regard, I am glad school is over and he'll get a fresh start in August.

As a teacher it was difficult because I felt like, for the first half of the year, I was doing 2 jobs. I was teaching in class and then I was teaching online. I felt like a lot of things fell through the cracks and I wasn't the best teacher I could be. I felt that my students did not get the best education this year, which broke my heart. But, because of the Covid restrictions, I felt like my students became more like family than classmates. We were with each other for 7.5 hours a day and did not get to mingle with other students until a month before school was out. It made them a close knit group. It also made me bond with them more as well. For the first time in a long time, I cried at the end of the year award ceremony because I am going to miss this group. I realized that teaching 5th grade is hard because next year I won't get to see my students. I won't get to check in on them and see how things are going in their life. They will be on to middle school. For some, they need a teacher checking in with them, asking about their family life. School is their only safe place.

So, the end of the year was bittersweet. I am hoping we can cram as many memories as possible into this Summer and get back to a normal school year in August. We all deserve it!

Some pics from our Summer adventures so far....