i love them

i present to you: the first graduating class from alpha public schools:

we took a class picture to hang in the office forever, and i hopped in at the last snap. these extraordinary (although often patience-trying!) young people have impacted my life in big, big ways. i love them.

fun end of the year things:
-we took a field trip to san francisco. somehow i got thirty-eight thirteen-year-olds from our school to fisherman's wharf to ocean beach to the san francisco zoo and back again without any major problem (we did loose a few students for a while at the wharf...). it was a totally crazy day. but it felt in a lot of ways like hanging out with thirty-eight of my best friends. we spend so much time together. i love them. aren't they darling? i am struck again by how angelic they mostly all look in this picture... in many ways deceiving, but also! they each have such a light.
-we had a school dance! it was outside under the scorching sun right after school, and the teachers had to use quite a lot of encouragement to get students to dance, but it was super fun. it was luau themed and about 100 of us were doing the macarena at one point and we limboed and and there was some drama and students stood awkwardly around the edges of the space. ah! middle school dances!
-last saturday i went to see the movie the fault in our stars with a bunch of students who read the book (which i also read - first book i've read for pleasure since i started teaching!). we were all sobbing in the theater together.
-we are making big plans for graduation, which i hope will be pretty epic! these kids have overcome some big obstacles to be successful in school, and i am very proud of them. just eight more school days and we'll have made it! i hope i've taught them a lot, but they've taught me much more.