Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Two reasons to smile.

While I'm sure that I can actually find far more than 2 reasons to smile I'm only going to share two with you right now.

1. Last week a colleague brought me a piece of paper. I thought this was kind of odd, especially when she said it was from one of her students (who is also a former student of mine). When I opened it up I was surprised and full of joy. This letter was written to me.


I've heard many teacher tells stories of how students come up to them years after they have taught them and told stories of their time in class. Well this is a student that I taught only 2 years ago. But to have a heart-felt letter like this written to me was an honour. There are definitely days when I'm frustrated and don't know if this whole teaching thing is for me. But then you get something like this and it makes it all better. I will forever keep this letter in a safe place so on those bad days I can smile because I have made a difference in someone's life.

2. Yesterday it was COLD here in Manitoba. We're talking -42C with the windchill. Well, luckily for teachers, days like this result in no school for the kids. It's a bonus day to get stuff done at school that you might not normally have time to do, or at least you don't have to take it home to finish it up. While somehow my list still seems very long (as it always is!), one thing did get finished in my classroom yesterday.



My Smartboard!!!! I'm so excited about this. You remember how earlier last fall I said " the best way to get something from your principal is to ask"? Well I did, and this is what I got! 
I've been waiting since the end of October for this baby. After some problems with the manufacturer, it was delivered right after Christmas break only to find that one of the chords was too short and didn't reach my desk so I had to wait. Well luckily for me no kids at school meant that the tech guys from the division office were able to come and install the new chord for me! This just made my day. The bad news, this morning I won't be at school so I can't even show it to the kids right away. They will have to wait until Wednesday. They are going to be SO pumped.

Now my job is to find some amazing things to do with it. So if anyone out there has out of this world ideas that they use their board for, I'd love to hear them.

Needless to say, I'm in a pretty good mood right now! Happy Monday!