Finally Friday!!!!

This was the VERY LONGEST week I ever spent in school. The week before vacation is never productive for me. I work with teachers helping them improve math instruction and that is the last thing on their agendas the week before Christmas! I do lots of running around, try to clear up paper work and change every plan and schedule endlessly! I even drove half way across Brooklyn for a meeting/training and the presenter did not show up! BUT it was all worth it for me to see the children's holiday show. I've been teaching since 1972 and in my present school for 18 years but I still get very teary to see the chorus just belting out songs and to see those shining happy faces. I work in a total inclusion school, about 25% of our kids have IEPs and most have parents or guardians who struggle with finances and in many other ways. Lots of kids I have worked with have been lost to the streets, drugs, gangs etc. There is something about watching the kids sing that makes me feel that they all have a chance and that there is no better place to work! Our current music teacher allows any child to join the upper or lower chorus with interest as a requirement not talent so sometimes the notes are off but they all look so happy and proud.
This is my first Christmas since Bob died and I'm very teary often and missing him often. He was a social Worker / Drug Counselor and he spent over 25 years working with mentally ill clients and addicts. He alway organized a holiday party for the staff and clients at the clinic where he worked and I would bake hundreds of cookies for him to take to work. I'm sure that I am not the only one missing him this year.