My Final Day

Getting Surprised

• The teacher in the next room caught me on the way to my classroom and asked me if I had been to the lounge yet. She informed me that they had purchased doughnuts for my last morning. When I went in there, I saw that they had put a yellow table cloth on the table and that there was a gift and a balloon for me. I was so happy to have this send off. For the gift, the teachers gave me spare school supplies and they placed them in a Thirty-one bag. I am so happy to have this start for my future classroom. 

Running the Classroom

• My teacher was at a PD called "Finding the Leader in You," so I got to be in charge of the classroom for my last day. We ran behind, but it was a good day. 

Collecting Money 

• I can't believe that the students ordered 48 bags of popcorn and 6 pickles. My teacher was right, it took forever to collect everything. 

Spelling Test

• The students did pretty well on the spelling test, but for some reason, they forgot to split their words into syllables. This really brought their grades down. Eventually I stopped scoring the tests so that my teacher could decide to have the students break their words apart. I usually check the tests to make sure that the students split their words, but I was running behind today. If this were my classroom, I would pass the tests back out for the students to split the words apart. 

Morning Meeting

• We were behind schedule and it was snack time. I knew that a child had brought in Fun Dip for everyone. I told the students that they could have the Fun Dip for snack while we had morning meeting if they promised not to make a mess. They did a great job, the janitor only found half of one of the dipping sticks. The only downside was that they did not clap as much. 
• In honor of my last day, I allowed the students to pass around my class ring during celebrations. There are a few IU fans in the classroom, they were very excited that it said Indiana University. 

Poster Math

• I gave the students a problem about combinations. The students used their grit as they worked through the problems. Only one group came up with a different answer. The posters can be found on the classroom blog. I will use poster math in my future classroom. 

My Going Away Party

• My teacher was so nice for providing cookies for my going away party. My students had asked me to open the gifts all day, but I told them to wait until my party. One of my students brought a giant chocolate bunny for me. My teacher/class gave me three books and a card. The card and First Day Jitters were signed by everyone. The students even wrote messages inside the cover of the book. I thought that this was appropriate because the book is about a new teacher and I know that I will also have jitters on the first day. I really wanted Oh The Places You'll Go for me graduation, my class gave me that book, the card and the gift card also followed that theme. I love that I have this gift card to help me buy some of the excellent books that I read during this semester along with others that will help my future classroom. The final book was Don't Let the Pigeon Stay up Late. I just read that book to the students during the introductory lesson for persuasive writing. The students gave me a group hug. I hugged three to four students at a time. 

Detention

• I only had three students for detention. Surprisingly, they still tried to talk to each other. Because no one owed the full recess time, I had part of the recess to myself. I used that time to sort some make up work for math. Even though I was not able to gather all of the make-up work, I knew that it would still make a difference. 

The Final Hug 

• The students usually hug the teacher or give or a high five. I requested that each student hug me goodbye. 

Leaving

• It took a long time to leave. I commented on the sub plans, graded the spelling tests, took pictures of the poster math, cleaned out my desk, and made sure that I did not have any loose ends that I wasn't thinking of.