WHAT A YEAR!
I cannot believe that this was the last day of my sons third grade year. And OH what a year! I believe that this is the first time I have written a whole blog post on this subject BUT i just had to, as I felt SO compelled to write about his teacher! NOW, let me first say that we have had such a great experience with all of his teachers at his school. Every year, he has a class and a teacher that gets to know him, understands how he works and helps push him and get him to reach his highest potential. I have gained relationships with his teachers since I have the wonderful availability to chaperone on field trips, help in class and more! That also gives me a "behind the scenes" look into the daily routines that our kids experience at school on a daily basis. Well this year was such a treat and I wish I could have helped more this year in the classroom.
This year, we had a teacher that exemplifies everything we want for our children's education. I wish that we could CLONE her OR even better, that she would just move up to teaching 4th grade so that we can have her again next year! Sadly I do not think either of those will happen. BUT when all the parents are crying on the last day of school you KNOW its because we are all wondering how any teacher from here out could ever compare.
What made her so special? LET ME TELL YOU... Here is just a SMALL description of the things that I was fortunate enough to witness this year (and i know there are COUNTLESS hours of extras that she did that I will never know about):
Aside from planning her lessons, she was the organizer of all the field trips! And when i say ALL Im talking about 6 or 7! YES that many! And before you gasp let me explain. She understands the importance of these outside, hands-on, in the real world learning experiences! Our children gain so much more from field trips that just the pumpkins they bring home, or the shows that they see. Im thankful for all the trips we made this year they would not have happened with out all her organization skills!
She also organized what we call MARKET DAY! And this is such a fantastic and busy event. The students get to design and create a product, market the product to their peers, and then organize a booth to sell your product to the rest of the students. And the students get to keep all their purchases made with their BOBCAT bucks that were earned the month prior to Market Day by good behavior, staying on task etc etc... HELLO FUTURE BUSINESS OWNERS!
I saw her attend and participate in many of the schools skate nights! We loved skating with her, and Evan loved seeing her outside of the classroom! it was a special thing!
She hand wrote and mailed a thank you card to our home during the holiday break to thank us for the small gift Evan gave her before break. I know she got a lot of gifts and so that was a lot of cards to write. Talk about the little things that add up to be the big things!
This was the FIRST year that I got to enjoy a Mothers Day Tea and a fabulous presentation. It was SO special and I am glad that I got to experience it and I am so thankful that she planned it for us!
She created memory books (literally so detailed and time consuming) for Evan and all the other students with all of their school year art work! It was SO beautiful and she took pictures of all the kids and all the events over the year and added them into the books! It was so perfect! I will cherish it forever!
Along with the last one, she took so many photos of the kids but what i thought was so cool was that she took pictures of the kids and their family at conferences and then had frames designed by the student set out around her whole classroom displaying all her students and their families for the whole year! That was fun to see every time I was in the classroom!
Every holiday (and most teachers do this but its oh so fun) she made it special! Whether it was Christmas time or Saint Patricks day it was always a fun event. See what her Leprechaun did to her room and my cute valentines at the special valentines party. AND she always remembered Owen and had something for him to have or do along with big brother (which is Owens Happy place-being alongside big brother).
Honestly I could probably sit here and come up with another full list of amazingness that she did but I will just close with this. She genuinely cares about our kids. She learns about our kids. She is known for having the most well behaved class and well that doesn't happen by accident, it comes from the structure and guidelines that she puts in place, her consistency and the trust she builds with her students. She truly is one of a kind and we will really miss her next year! Evan has grown educationally, emotionally, socially and physically over these past 9 month THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF OUR HEARTS for such a great experience. We hope you have a fabulous summer and get a chance to rest and have some great family time for yourself!
I hope the next group of kids and parents realize who they have next year and love you as much as we all did!
best
Arms Family
