No More Teachers, No More Books

After posting daily for 10 days in Dublin and London I had blog-burn-out. (That is a real condition, right?) But after an emotional last day of school, the blog-burn-out has alleviated, and I am returning to my job as family historian.

Today was the official last day of school, and in true Open Classroom style, it was not without a bit of Drama. With a mere two days of school left to be celebrated, the dreaded swine flu epidemic hit home. (Thankfully not our home!) Several (around 20-30) kids had terrible flu symptoms and several were confirmed cases of the H1N1 bug. This meant many students would not be attending the last two days for one of two reasons: they were sick or they were afraid of becoming sick. Not ones to enjoy having any kind of flu, swine or not, Bill and I decided to limit our families exposure and skip Monday, but we all went in today to enjoy last day festivities. Romney's sweet Kindergarten teacher, Ruth, had prepared the traditional O.C. awards (Romney got the Verbal, Vivacious Vocabulary and Funkeys Lover Award) and had planted a start from a plant she received as a 5th grade O.C. student (she is herself a graduate of the Open Classroom. She got her law degree and decided to become a teacher after discovering how much she disliked practicing law.) Now they can all grow their own plants as they grow as people. They had their brunch and watched the DVD of photos from the year that I had made for the class. After that, the parents were removed from the class and they had a "flower ceremony". Romney said they each picked a cut flower out that reminded them of themselves. He picked one with lots of little daisy looking sprouts on one stem. He said he was one of the flowers and his kindergarten friends were the rest. I loved that he took the ceremony seriously. (Sometimes serious is a problem for Romney).



(Posting the picture to the left is a sort of a lesson to William who allowed me only one shot and decided to make this face! If he is unhappy with the fact it is now public domain, I wouldn't blame him, but it is the only shot he would allow me to take.) William's last day was bitter-sweet this year. He is moving on to a new school next year after 5 beautiful years at the Open Classroom. It was my last day as a co-oper in his classroom. His class (along with most of the school) served as audience for the 8th grade graduation for most of the morning. They headed to recess and had a nice brunch and came back for the awards (William received the Mellow Marvel Comics Master award.) This is the part I was unwilling to miss. I have been with many of those kiddos as a co-oper since Kindergarten 5 years ago. Transitioning to middle school next year and so many kids heading their separate ways has been very emotional for me. It was a nice chance to celebrate the children and have a chance for hugs and well wishes.
William has been blessed to have some great friends. (They may not look like much in this picture, but they are pretty good boys.) One of his best friends was not able to share in the last day festivities due swine flu misery, but he was there in spirit and (luckily) headed off to Middle School with most of the others in this picture. To cap off the celebrations, the kids and I, plus good friends, the Bates, headed off for some mini-golf/laser tag/video game fun at Boondocks. The boys went to bed happy and excited to start their summer break!