Moving On...

After fifteen years of work and six days of packing, I have officially closed the door of my classroom at my school and am heading on to a new adventure! I wasn't really expecting to move at this late stage of the year, but when the opportunity came up, I felt it calling me. 

I'm just changing schools. I'll still be teaching grade four, so it won't all be foreign.

Being at this school for fifteen years has been really significant in my teaching career. I love this community. I feel like it has allowed me to refine my passions for literacy, especially in writing. I have grown up here, learning to be a teacher-leader and mentor.

The halls have been empty as I pack up my boxes, fill recycling bins, and strip my walls of art in these first few days of summer. This is solitary work- only I can decide what to keep and what to recycle. It's hard and exhausting work.

My students here? Well, they'll always be my students. Their joys, their triumphs, their boundless enthusiasm, their kind words to me and creative writing over the years, I will keep as treasures. I wonder if they know how much they have taught me?

My colleagues here? Well, they are more than colleagues. Inspirational, hard workers, creative thinkers, good listeners, faithful friends. I will miss the day-to-day part of working with you. But I am taking with me your ideas, your creativity and friendship. These are also valuable treasures. Thank you for your kindness towards me. Words can't really express my gratitude for what I have learned and how my time here has shaped me. 

So long, SGCS, thanks for all that you brought into my life! I remember not being very happy when I was "placed" here. I could not have been more wrong in my feeling. What a priviledge to have been given such a gift of a place to learn and grow. 

And now the tears come...

This is what 15 years of teaching looks like when it's all packed up...
yup, SK , you were right...
FIFTY boxes on the nose

THREE recycling bins filled to overflowing.