Thanksgiving Break Begins!

This week was Parent/Teacher Conference Week at school.  Every afternoon I sat with my 4th graders' parents and went over first trimester report cards.  The other 4th grade teacher and I did most of our conferences together -- I teach language arts to both of our classes and she teaches the math.  Both of us share our classes, so we conferenced together.  This meant double the conferences that each of us would have to attend, but we team together so well that this actually made things easier.  Still, it also meant for a long day.  I came home each afternoon just as it was growing dark. 

The highlight of my week was today.  On Tuesday, one of my students stood up and shared from his Writer's Notebook that he was very sad because the next day his two pigs were being sent off to be butchered.  Then he broke down in tears as the rest of the class watched in dismay.  Some of the other children began to cry too -- in sympathy, I suppose.  Finally one student picked up my box of Kleenix and began passing it out to their sobbing classmates. It was surreal and very sad. 

Later that day I mentioned that I had too many ducks and the child who was losing his pigs asked if he could take some.  Could he take some!!!  The end of this story is that Bruce came down to the school this afternoon with a box of four of our baby ducklings to give to this little boy.  They are a farm family who have chickens and other animals, so they'll know how to care for them.  The boy (a small, serious child with red hair) was ecstatic.  All his classmates were also able to meet the ducklings and, of course, they all wanted their own too (but that is another story).  The boy's grandmother and Bruce had a good conversation about how to care for the ducklings -- and off they went.  No pictures of any of this, but I'm sure that you can imagine it. 

When I became a teacher, it was because I wanted to make a difference -- I wanted to do good work.  I make so many mistakes every day and am quick to beat myself up about every one of them.  But when something right comes together like it did today, my heart is just about bursting with happiness.  A good way to start Thanksgiving...