Five for Fraturday

SCHOOL’S OUT FOR SUMMER!!!!!  It’s not just Happy Weekend, it’s Happy Summer!  🙂

You guys!!!!  This whole new Senior Walk thing happening all around the country seems like a Millennial thing to me.  In all my years of teaching (21), we never had the High School Seniors return to their elementary schools for a walk in their caps and gowns.

THIS IS NEW.

And now it’s everywhere.

Apparently, last year, we started it at our local high school, but only a few seniors showed up, and we didn’t really know anything about it, so we just kept teaching that rigorous academic lesson trying to keep our kids in line by having Game Board Day or Field Day or Popcorn and a Movie Day.

This year, our new principal knew all about it so she told us what time the seniors were arriving, sent us a list of all the seniors coming, and we were ready.

And BAM!

One of my most FAVORITE CLASSES EVER walked through our campus and it was so happy and fun!  This is the class that I’ve talked about before because it was back when we were still 20 to 1, and I had 17 girls and only 3 boys.   Tanner wasn’t able to make it, but my other two boys did!  🙂  And then a ton of the girls came back, too!

The letter that one of my girls, Kennady, wrote just about KILLED ME DEAD.  This girl!!  Kennady helped me run sight word and math facts testing when she was an upper grader, and then she came to my classroom and helped me every summer.  She always texts me on my birthday and here and there . . . I don’t know why we have such a special bond, but we do!  I’m always one to say you can’t have favorites, and that’s not right, etc . . . but maybe this is okay because Kennady picked ME as her favorite????  Thoughts on that?

When she was a freshman in high school, her mom talked about moving back to the East Coast, and she called to tell me that Kennady said she would move in with friends first, there was no way she was going.  Her mom told her no, that wouldn’t work, her friends’ parents already had enough to deal with, there was no way she would ask anyone to take Kennady in, and then Kennady blurted out well, then, I’ll go live with Mrs. Oldham!!  And I said . . . absolutely, Kennady can live with us!!!  But, they ended up staying here in California so there you go.

🙂

It was a super happy day and now I can’t wait for next year’s Senior Walk!  That is the beauty of being old and hating change and staying at the same elementary school as long as they’ll have you.

By the way, we moved around a lot when I was a kid – I went to THREE elementary schools in THREE different states, and when I was in the middle of my junior year in high school, we moved back to California from Oklahoma, so I would have been a Senior with nowhere to walk.  So there IS a part of me that thinks the Senior Walk might be sad for some students.

JUST SAYING.

Woohoo!!  I ordered my new Erin Condren life planner because it has become my habit to do so every May and I am nothing if I don’t stick to my habits.  I love my new personalized cover!  I have had some sort of combination of pink and gray for the last few years, but this year I went with peony and white.  I know, I know.  Peony is apparently in the pink family.  But I really like the name peony.  Who has a new dog or cat or fish or iguana or child for me to name?

I use the life planner for my LIFE.  I mean, my whole life is in there.  Appointments, birthdays, SSTs, Staff Meetings, IEPs, important events, trips, and all of my To Dos.  I’m making it sound like I lead a very full, very BIG life, but I think we all know that most of the days say “5:00 PJ” which means I’m getting my pjs on as soon as I get home.  😉

I’ve got the new Teacher Planner coming my way and I can’t wait to see it!  I’ve heard there are a lot of great new updates and, even though I am officially on summer vacation, I am a big ole nerd, and NEED TO HAVE IT IN MY HANDS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.  I had a lot of fun designing that cover, too.  It really helped distract me from doing my report cards which I find super important in a Teacher Planner.  Obviously.

I will be having some sort of giveaway for the Teacher Planner so stay tuned!

I love our school’s Social Committee!!  Mainly because one of my teammates is in charge of it, but also because THEY CARE.

At the beginning of every month, they pass out this little treat to staff members celebrating a birthday that month.  Attached underneath is a little ziplock bag with 50 cents in it so that we can also buy a soda (or water) out of the staff lounge soda machine.  By the way, our soda machine has always taken 50 cents.  Since our school opened.  As in, SEVENTEEN YEARS AGO.  A can of Coke, or Diet Dr. Pepper, or a small bottle of water is STILL 50 cents.  It’s seriously one of my most favorite things about our staff lounge and I’m not kidding.  It also takes dollar bills which usually means if a friend is putting a dollar bill into the machine, she’ll holler out anyone want a soda?? because that’s just the way we are.  The machine DOES give back change, but most of us just offer the other half of the dollar because we’re nice like that.  

I would like to go on the record and say that I have had only ONE soda since January 8.  Yes.  That’s right.  I’m super proud of myself and wish I could say I haven’t had ANY AT ALL, but I had a REAL COKE OUT OF A GLASS BOTTLE at our End of the Year Staff Party.  I know.  I am such a party animal.

As far as chips go, well . . . I can’t say I’ve had any Cool Ranch Doritos in a good long while, and I’d say that’s a good thing because that little chip bag says it has 260 calories in it!!!  Listen, I don’t know about you, but I think I’d rather make Ranch Dip with sour cream and the packet from the salad dressing aisle have french fries with Ranch and just call it a day.

I love love love my teammates.

LOVE THEM.

I am so blessed to work with them!!!  They surprised me on Thursday with a little pre-birthday lunch (since we’ll be on summer vacation when my real birthday hits) of pizza and BUTTERFINGER PIE.  Rose is our resident baker and this pie was UNBELIEVABLE.  We all ate the Butterfinger Pie before the Pizza Pie.  You would have, too.  TRUST ME.

They also all gave me THE NICEST CARD.  Seriously.  It was a story.  The card told a story and you know how I love a good story!  And then they gave me an Amazon gift card because hello?  Who doesn’t love Amazon?

It meant a lot because having to celebrate someone’s birthday the last week of the school year when we’re all just trying to get through awards assemblies, parties, Field Day, etc is rough.  Believe me.  I wasn’t expecting a darn thing so the surprise made it all that much sweeter.

I saw this on Instagram via Our Elementary Daze and said HECK YEAH!

I’m mostly excited about the HOT coffee!  But not setting an alarm, not having a schedule, not having to wear real clothes . . . all of that sure sounds exciting, too.

For the last few years, Steve and I have jetted off somewhere RIGHT AWAY.  Sometimes the NIGHT of the last day of school, but mostly, the next day.

This summer, we will not be going anywhere for a couple of weeks so I’m super happy to have some down time.

Are you out for summer yet??

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