Shift Change

     Every.Single.August my husband and I have the same conversation:

Me: These kids are good and all, but they're not like last year's class.
Hubs: You say that every year.
Me: No I don't. I mean, these kids are good and cute, but last year's class had so much personality, ya know?
Hubs: You said that about last year's class too.
Me: I did not. Classes like that one last year just come along every few years, I guess. I just miss them.
Hubs: Seriously? I'm going to record this conversation and play it back to you next year.
Me: I just wish I was "jelling" more with them.
Hubs: Ok, this conversation is over. What's for dinner?

     You know what I'm going to say next - He was totally right. By October I was gushing about my new class and all of the cute things they said or did that day. I was showing off pictures of them as if they were my own children. And my Facebook updates frequently referenced how nice it was to start a weekend after spending such a great Friday with "my kids".
     Well, I just counted the calendar and there are just 8 little weeks left in this school year. 8! Now, don't get me wrong, I L-O-V-E my summers, but the thought of letting these kids go running into the arms of another teacher is a bit heart wrenching. Will my new kids bring me home-made duct tape bracelets? Will my new kids be so cheerful in the morning like these guys? There can't possibly be a kid with a cuter smile than Little Mr. S. Can there be a sweeter little girl than Little Miss L? And what about Little Mr. R who actually thanks me for spending one on one time with him - THANKS me?? And don't even get me started on the parents. Oh, these parents. They are parents from which Teacher Fairy Tales are made. I'm seriously spoiled and I know it. Am I the only teacher in America who gets a little melancholy at this time of year? Surely, this is not normal.
      It hardly seems like almost 9 months ago that I was obsessing over my welcome back bulletin board. Soon enough I'll be doing it again as I prepare to welcome the next "New Crew". Feel free to borrow this idea to welcome yours :)

<-- A few years ago, I painted my boards. BEST thing I ever did (well, bulletin board wise). No more wrinkled paper, no more cutting, no more buying or storing rolls and rolls! One sample size container was plenty, with some left over for touch ups. I highly recommend it!  Attaching the cups was a bit tricky. I ended up cutting a small piece of 3M double stick foam tape to hold them on after LOTS of trial and error. Not sure why that was so tricky, but the tape was the perfect solution.

Believe it or not, I had saved up enough empty Starbucks cups so that each kid would have their own cup with their name on it to welcome them back. It was actually not so difficult. I'm a bit of a caffeine junky. Actually collecting those cups was a nice little excuse to stop there every day...but I digress.  When I started to attach the cups to the board with my ingenious plan to use a push pin through the cup into the board, it was a total no-go. I had saved plastic cups from cold drinks that just cracked when I tried to pin them.  In the end, I ended up using empty cupcake wrappers for their names. Not exactly what I pictured, but it did the job. And for some reason, Starbucks gift cards were a popular teacher gift this year!