School is out!

I will be posting quite a few posts tonight.
This has been an extremely busy last three days. On Monday, we had just a "regular" school day but we didn't do any teaching b/c the kids are just done and so are the teachers. On Tuesday, we went on the 8th grade retreat to the lake retreat up in Ravensdale, and it was awesome. Tuesday night, we had our very first 8th grade graduation. It was VERY nice and the kids were so excited about it. We all were so impressed and there were a shit-ton of parents there. :)

School ended yesterday. I am going to miss my students very much, especially my morning kids. They were such a good class. Yesterday we sat in a circle and I went around and told each student at least one or two things I would remember about them. As I focused in on Kimberly, about half way through the circle, I started crying. Kimberly is very special to me because in the beg. of the year, she was skipping school often and getting into trouble. She was hanging out with high school students instead of coming to school. Then one day, she decided to start coming to school. She was applying herself and decided to make the right choices and stay in school. About two months after she made the right decision, I gave her a Friday Note, and told her how proud I was of her. That note stayed in her binder all year and she was so proud of it. When I was telling her how proud I was of her for making the right decisions, she started crying too and it was just a special moment for all of us. *sigh* I just hope all of my kiddos make it and graduate from high school without getting pregnant or dropping out to get a GED. I want them to go to college and make something of themselves and get out of the ghetto. Because they all deserve it.


Here' s a pic of 3 of my students...Stacy is on the left in the blue, and Kimberly is the third girl from the left, followed by Anita. (I don't know the 2nd girl, she was not in any of my classes)