End of the School Year

While I am still in the midst of the #trust30 challenge posts about self-reflection, I am going to take a little break from that to catch you up on some end-of-the-school-year events. As always, the last few weeks of the year were extremely busy with finals, grading, comments, parties, going-away events and more, but it's ALL DONE! I am officially one week into summer vacation and loving every jam-packed minute so far. Seriously - what do people do who are not teachers with at least six weeks of summer vacation? Blows my mind.

Anyway...here is what the end of the year looked like...

Final 8th grade team meeting.

We said goodbye to two of my fellow teachers, Angie (in red), who taught 8th grade English and Steph (in blue with a white scarf), who taught 8th grade science. Angie started at Bolivar the year before Steph and I so she was a super helpful guiding source in our first year there, and Steph came to Bolivar with a lot of experience and a willingness to share it with me. I am going to miss both of them as individuals and as members of the 8th grade team tremendously next year.

Going away & end-of-the-year party! Kelsi dressed me in her clothes - cute, no?

Pre-party crew in the elevator mirror. I just love everyone's expressions here. :)

Tara's early birthday celebration!

Her birthday was actually this week, but we celebrated early before everyone headed home for the summer. She loves Vallenato bands, so we had one surprise her at the restaurant we were at and they even let her take pictures with the accordion afterwards!

8th Grade Graduation ceremony.

A few 8th grade teachers after the ceremony which included certificates for all the students and lots of awards/recognition for various things.

Middle School End-of-the-year Party

Traditionally someone gives a speech or says a few words about the people leaving and I was asked to talk about Steph. I made a slideshow with some photos of her time in Colombia and then said nice things about her...and quickly sat down before I was asked to translate it all into Spanish :)

Anna arrives!

The perfect end to another great school year! Anna arrived from Wyoming on Tuesday, June 14 to spend a week and a half traveling with me in Colombia. Details and photos of our adventures are soon to come!

Happy start of summer vacation!