In the Home Stretch…Welcome Spring!

Today is the last day of my annual spring break. It started anxiously, as I was scheduled for jury duty at my local courthouse. That, happily, fell through, so I spent the week pretending I wasn’t a teacher. Not as easy as that sounds, trust me.

When Spring comes hovering over the horizon in this part of the world, I find myself listening to the robins that have been gone so long, and watching the gulls that I wish wouldn’t come so far south of the lake. I’m looking out for the first buds on the plants and trees and smiling at crocuses and tulips, full of color, painting the drab landscape.

I had my students make a note of the Spring Equinox, just before break, and have had several message me on our Edmodo account to let me know that the “sun is moving slowly to the north now, Mrs. Stone!” Damned skippy it is, that ole Earth tilt is pushing the northern hemisphere closer to that nice ball of gas out there… and I’m happy about it! (sorry, nice southern hemisphere people, hope your fall and winter will be mild and without great climatic drama)

Sigh.

Time to go back to school. Back to learning and exploring and considering our world. We have about 9 weeks left in our school year and I’ll be starting our Life Science Unit in about 2 weeks (got a couple of solar system discussions to finish up before we move on). I can’t wait. There’s nothing like LIVING Life Science. We’ll spend warm days outside looking at habitat and populations. We’ll grow grass or flower seeds or maybe some herbs. (I haven’t decided which yet)

We’ll look one last time at water. Now that we know what it is, what elements its composed of and why this planet has so much of it and others don’t, we’ll examine why liquid water + the sun’s energy = life. I can’t wait.

Some time in January, as the snow fell and the wind blew, all I thought about was… summer vacation. Now, as we need the end of another school year, I grow sad, as I do every year about this time. Its almost over! This bunch was a nutty and silly and out of control as every other bunch that I’ve taught, but I’ve loved it.

I love the looks on their faces as I tell them something that they simply can’t wrap their little brains around, and then as we explore the possibilities of it all, together, they realize that YES, it is POSSIBLE and isn’t that AMAZING! I love when they come running into the classroom to tell me about something they saw on the news or read on Yahoo News about Mars or Saturn or our water supply or ANYTHING. They’re aware of and exploring their world, which is all I want them to do. Know its there, know they are the guardians of it, and to enjoy it.

I think I shall go down to the Dunes and say hello to the wildlife. Have a great week everyone!

As you reflect on the end of (or the beginning of) your school year, what is the one thing you’ve had happen that makes you smile and glad you’re a teacher?