The Bragg Family: Est. 2003: So long, farewell...

A little bit of back-tracking... much to catch up on, but I will start here.

September 3 was my last day in the classroom; indefinitely, at this time.

It was a bitter-sweet day. Teaching school is a pleasure, and it is well within my "being" and my comfort zone. I love the presence of children and the satisfaction in seeing them grow, advance, mature, develop, and ultimately learn, is priceless. With that said, knowing that I was leaving room 302 at Delaware to stay home with my boys, something that I was unsure about, caused a mixture of emotions.

As stated earlier, my class was quite challenging, however they were "my students" and I loved them. I was proud to be their teacher. No one ever told me that teaching school was easy nor did they tell me that every student that was seated in my classroom would be a Little Einstein who fully understood all academic areas, did everything you told them, when you told them, and things worked continuously like clock-work... doesn't work that way. And if so, why would we need teachers? This year's class was far from that description, however they had LOTS of potential.

I was excited about the journey lying ahead. I was excited about the opportunity to be at home, although I wasn't quite sure how well I would do. I was excited about the decrease in stress that goes with teaching school, esp in a turn-around-school. And I was excited about the flexibility of being at home with our children.

However, I was sad that I would not see the potential fulfilled. I was sad that I would not see my weak readers become strong readers, as well as become strong writers. I was sad that I would not see them learn their multiplication tables as they typically have such motivation to do so. I was sad about not seeing them learn to use their new Netbooks to complete classwork. I was sad about not seeing them develop the necessary social skills needed to move forward to 4th grade. I was sad about not seeing my students grow and develop into boys and girls ready for 4th grade. It was truly a bitter-sweet day.

The day was slightly relaxed as I was working on transitioning out, and my friend, Laura, was working on transitioning in. And Laura... :), the great news is that Laura was our Special Ed teacher who taught across the hall. She expressed interest in returning to the classroom and she got to come to take my place, and I was excited about that! It was comforting to know that a good teacher was following... a good teacher who knew my students... and a good teacher whom my students also knew... and a good teacher that already knew Delaware and where we were headed in terms of student/school success. It was a great feeling as I walked out the door. She has since called and texted a couple of times and says things are going great! I knew they would.

Below are a few pictures...

This is one of my favorites... my buddy, he was in my room last year and oh, how special he was to me... he made me a card and brought it to me. I cried, he tried not to cry as 4th graders don't cry, and all three other teachers in the room cried.

{I am crying right now...}

And Kara... what can I say? She was another 3rd grade teacher whom I L-O-V-E! She is totally awesome and I learned so much from her. She is one-of-a-kind and will forever hold a special place in my heart.

{She will kill me if she ever sees this picture... she was modeling the butterfly clips she was going to be adding to her SOAR store, which is our "positive behavior store"!}