Last Day

So here it is, my last day of field placement. It makes me really sad thinking that I will probably never see these kids again. The day started out pretty standard, when I came into the room the kids were watching a Micky Mouse Christmas video so Mrs. Kieffer could catch up on some work, which of course meant grading papers. It may sound a bit weird but I kind of enjoy grading papers, it's easy to just allow my mind to wonder and think about things. Sometimes when I'm grading papers alone in the classroom I start to sing, maybe I'm just crazy. One of the Grandmas that came in for a previous day started grading papers but didn't get to finish so I finished up for her. But she graded the papers weirdly so after just staring at the papers wondering what I was supposed to do I gave up and asked my teacher, and she had no idea. So I ended up having to redo all of the previous grading and fix the errors in the grade book. To say it took a while would be an understatement. I was still working when it was time for lunch, but I eventually got done and went to the teachers lounge for a change to eat my lunch with my teacher and the other 1st grade teachers. There was some kind of potato potluck or something. The teachers were talking about getting ready for the Christmas parties they were going to be having, it was really neat but I still feel weird just listening in on their conversation. One thing I found that I love about elementary teachers is how excited they get over finding cool activities or art things. They found this cool make your own bracelets kit and all the teachers were looking at it and talking about how cool it was. After lunch was computer lab which was a mess as usual, but the kids are slowly starting to understand what to put for their usernames and password which is nice. While the kids were at gym I was in the classroom with my teacher helping to roll pieces of tape so the kids could hang up their snowmen and I had a nice chat with my teacher, and then she did something very unexpected. She gave me a gift, a bag and some lotion from Bath and Body Works it was so nice and so completely out of the blue I cannot explain just how good it made me feel. For the rest of the day she just made me put somethings in the kid's mailboxes and generally just hang out with the kids. I listened to them read, and made paper snowflakes with them during indoor recess. I think she was just being nice and allowing me to hang with the kids for my last day, which I have absolutely no complaints about. I talked to the Grandma who was there today for a bit and then it was time to go. Mrs. Kieffer didn't tell the kids that was my last day until I was about to leave, and then every kid came up to me and we had a huge group hug. It was a good last day, I learned so many things about teaching during my field placement and I felt welcome there. I really am going to miss my classroom.