For a moment Charlotte said nothing. Then she spoke in a voice so low Wilbur could hardly hear the words.
“I will not be going back to the barn,” she said. Wilbur leapt to his feet. “Not going back?” he cried. “Charlotte, what are you talking about?”
~from Charlotte's Web, by E.B.White
*****
Until I became a teacher, I didn't understand what the end of a school year and summer break truly meant.
As a parent, the end of a school year means, time to find help with watching your kids, or finding ways to keep the kiddos occupied for eight to ten weeks. Family vacations or other travel plans are typically carried out. Summer reading program schedules are accessed, and put on the calendar. Swim, or soccer lessons fill time, as well as league games, and hitting a swimming pool. Playdates, and overnight stays become a daily thing. The first few weeks of summer break are welcomed by all.
I recall falling into the summer routine with my own children. Sleeping in and playing with Legos or crafting. My kids LOVED being on break, and I loved having them home, until the boredom set in, which happened quicker than I always liked. Yikes, being a parent over summer has it's challenges! As a parent of two, at times it seemed I could not get them to agree on ANYTHING. Nor could I get them to do what I wanted them to do without yelling or getting angry. Where were the teachers now?! How did they do it, day after day with my two - both who were good kids I might add???
The end of the school year is filled with emotions. Yes, this group of students came to me in August, but my year started before they arrived. Weeks before school starts, I have to get my room ready for the year. Items that were packed away need to resurface and find their home again. There are curriculum manuals to read, papers to copy, homework folders to set up, thirty-six weeks of lessons to generally spread out, to just name a few things that fill a teacher's time. In fact, as soon as school ends in May, I will attend professional development seminars, so assuming teachers have the summer off is truly wishful thinking. Most teachers go to classes to help further their knowledge over the summer. We attend technology, reading, writing, social studies, math, science, and classroom management seminars. THIS is how we fill our summers. We become students during our two month break. Some of us also teach summer camps, so we spend time preparing and teaching, as well.
By the time "Meet the Teacher" happens the day before school, most teachers have all ready been working for two weeks in their classroom. It's true, teachers do love school. We are so excited for the new year to start! In first grade, there are brand new, sharp crayons that still have their paper wraps neatly around them. There are long, pointy, number two pencils whose erasers have yet to be pulled out and whose ends haven't been chewed on. There are chunky erasers waiting to be shredded by scissors. There are perfect folders and composition notebooks that teachers neatly have written student's names upon. Name plates with student numbers on them have been carefully taped onto the student desks. All their edges are smoothly stuck down to the desk tops and ready to be picked at by all the little picker's fingers.
In August, students and teacher come together, and a new community is born. Rules must be established and enforced. How to line up, walk in a line, sit at ones desk, play on the playground equipment, use the bathroom, get to the library, the specials rooms, and cafeteria are taught over and over. Where to sit in the cafeteria and what manners there look like are explicitly shown. Expectations are set for all aspects of the day and strived towards. Letter formation, spelling, number sense and learning to read are the curriculum that start a first grade school year.
Fall break is not really a break for teachers. Grades and comments are due on report cards just after break. There is also other data that is collected on students skill abilities. This information must be added to a grade level data chart. Teachers spend their days teaching, and it's nigh impossible to sit down to input information. So our break is filled with inputting data and getting ready for term two.
When October arrives, a teacher has parent/teacher conferences to host after the first report card has been sent home. These conferences give us a chance to connect with parents after we've had a little time to find out our student's strengths and areas of concerns. We are happy to share positives with parents and offer ways to help their child be the best student they can be.
By Thanksgiving, we know our class very well. We know who needs extra TLC, who needs pushed, who needs watched so they aren't falling through the cracks and who has it all together. When winter break arrives, we finally have a few days we can turn our brains off from school, but the holidays quickly fill the school void.
The winter months of the new year find the class running smoothly as a community. Light bulbs seem to click on as students suddenly "get" what is being taught. It's a rewarding time to be a teacher. One's efforts can be seen paying off.
By the time spring break hits, the end of the year is now in sight. Teachers panic a bit...can they get through everything they need to get through? Students start acting more like siblings. They pick on and tease one another. They are much more comfortable and they speak their minds. Class rules and expectations need to be revisited. Students rat out each other's poor choices, ones made while away from the teacher, without blinking an eye. Even best buddies do this to one another! That is, unless they were making poor choices together...like using the bathroom as a parkour training room. Then, students from other classes rat them out! The first grade beast is both funny and fun to watch.
May arrives, and the finish line approaches. One hundred and eighty school days completed draws near. Charlotte's Web is the last read aloud. Tears stream down teacher's cheeks and his or her voice may crack as these words are read...
"But as he was being shoved into the crate, he looked up at Charlotte and gave her a wink. She knew he was saying good-bye in the only way he could. And she knew her children were safe.
“Good-bye!” she whispered. Then she summoned all her strength and waved one of her front legs at him.
She never moved again. Next day, as the Ferris wheel was being taken apart and the race horses were being loaded into vans and the entertainers were packing up their belongings and driving away in their trailers, Charlotte died. The Fair Grounds were soon forlorn. The infield was littered with bottles and trash. Nobody, of the hundreds of people what had visited the Fair, knew that a grey spider had played the most important part of all. No one was with her when she died."
Tomorrow, I will say goodbye to my students. They are ready to move on, even though I am not yet ready for a new groups of kiddos. I will have the summer to let this group go in my brain. My students have had a great year, and I am happy they have been in my life and classroom. They will always be my kids. That's how a teacher's heart works.
The day after tomorrow, I will clean out files, take down things hanging on the walls, and clear off shelf tops. I will be in my classroom, all alone. My heart will ache a little at the end of the day when I turn off the light and pull the door closed.
I will wake on Thursday and I will not head into school to see my students. I will not start each day seeing and greeting my friends. When I decided to teach, I hadn't expected the bond I form with other teachers to be as deep as it is. I adore all the people at my school. It truly is an extended family. I will fall into my own summer routine. I am looking forward to nuzzling my kitties randomly through the day, and hiking with Toby.
When August rolls around...
I'll be ready for my next class full of kiddos. More importantly, I'll be ready to be back home, in my barn cellar, alongside all my friends.
~Lisa Kroll
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