Now what...?

On Thursday, I surprised my students by telling them it was my last day with me.  After starting the year out on maternity leave, I only ended up teaching this group for about 2 months.  I'm not one for big good-byes, so I thought just telling them on my last day was the best day to go.  My enrichment was having a going away party for a student who is moving, so I used that as my chance to say good-bye as well.

I finalized their grades and had them complete personal evaluations for me during class, so by the end of the day I had every grade entered and the end of the marking period complete.  After chatting with co-workers, I spent some time at my desk just kind of confused with what to work on.  I went to pack up to go home and was pretty confused when I realized I had nothing to take home and put in my bag! 

I really don't mind the teaching-but the grading, and the hours of prep work that can't be done during the school day are what really make me not want to work full time (while raising babies).  I've always envied people who can get their work done during their actual 9-5 hours and aren't always scrambling to get work done before work or taking it home after. 

 My room before we started packing it up.

I love these drawings... they had to use specific types of lines and write the equation for each line used.  These are form last year, just one of the many things that I had to leave behind.

We spent three hours on Saturday, and four more this morning packing up my classroom (two full car-loads of stuff).  As we walked to the playground afterwards (at Theo's request), I started letting the weight of my job lift from my shoulders.  As I was sitting swinging with my baby, and watching Theo and Brian chase each other through the playground equipment, I realized it was the first care-free moment we (all four of us) had had in weeks (maybe months!).  When we got back in the car, I turned to Brian and said, "Now what?"