Last Day at Crosswinds EVER

Today was our very last meeting at Crosswinds Middle School. The kids presented their projects; they at first had it set up a bit like the State Fair where we visited them at cafeteria tables and they did a little speech and showed us photographs, but it proved too little for an hour of wandering, so they moved onto the stage and a few volunteered for the whole group. I think only four went up on the stage out of a hundred and two of those were my students. Kim knocked the socks off of everyone with her reading program for ELL students and Danessa charmed the audience with her scrap book tour of Woodbury. One of my cohort members, Tamela, asked me if I had any other students to off-set those two! I told her that I was frustrated at the end of the field trip just like everyone else. :) They all gave us thank-you notes for coming in (which seemed silly since we didn't do a whole heck of a lot) and I told Kim that I would see if any of the cohort would like to volunteer to be ELL tutors. The program is for two weeks in the summer, so I'm sure some of us would be interested! I had a good time overall, though there were several problems with my experiences at Crosswinds. I think this will be true of most schools. So perhaps instead of looking at those negative aspects, I'll try to just remember the good. I have some thank-you notes and photographs--they will be my first addition to the box I will create--the one I will visit on my frustrating days of teaching!