Here's to the Kids!

I was cleaning out old papers recently and came across a notebook I haven't been able to throw away.  It's from my first year of teaching (5th grade at Garcia Elementary in Phoenix) and has every painstaking detail that went into every (sometimes painful) day.  Your first year of teaching in your own classroom is an experience that I'm not sure is quite like any other.  While you're surrounded by anywhere from 15 to 30 people all day each day, it can feel pretty lonely at times.

But maybe this is for another post.

The reason I jumped on my blog was because I couldn't throw away this notebook without sending this little poem I wrote, while in the throes of teaching, to the archives.  I still think it's pretty sweet...even if it shows my 22-year-old self naivete...


For anyone who ever thought being a teacher was "easy" with summers off and work days that "end" at 3 pm, I'd just like to say:

Here's to the kids who make work worth it,
The kids who keep us coming back for more.

Here's to the kids who forget their homework...
           their lunch money...
                  their phone number...
...but remember what you wore the first day of school,
The sticker you forgot to put on their chart,
The fact that you said they could get the lunch cards
               Three weeks ago.

Here's to the kids who get As
The kids who get Fs
The kids who get IT--finally!

Here's to the kids whose eyes give them away:
I'm happy
I'm bored
I'm scared.

Here's to the kid who says "It's not fair,"
Who says "I don't get it"
Who says "Why?"

Here's to the kids who come when you wish they would go,
Who go when you wish they could stay,
And who a little piece of who they are
With you.  Always.

Awww...with each subsequent year of teaching I think I get a little mistier as I read this!