Mission Accomplished

From the very beginning of my teaching career, making it to Halloween has always been an accomplishment. In the early days of first grade, it took that long for kids to get down the routines and for me to have a handle on who the characters would be. It also meant that I had gotten past parent conferences and survived Halloween itself. And that was no small feat when dealing with 6 year olds and sugar was involved. The years have past and I have moved up the grades until I find myself dealing with not 6 year olds but 6th graders. Halloween however remains my signpost that now all will be well. This year is no exception. I have taken on the challenge of teaching a reading intervention class in addition to developing a 6th grade reading curriculum. I am not unhappy about either of these, it is just a challenge. Despite the extra time and energy I need to remind myself that I am much happier being immersed in reading and writing than I was last year in writing and social studies. I am grounded once again in my love of language.

Today was the school world's celebration of Halloween. It was fascinating on so many levels. First is the costumes. Everyone should at one time in their life be on a middle school campus for Halloween. It's just fun. The personalities or perhaps their wished for personalities come out as big as life. They are just happy to be alive. And yet they are still able to conduct themselves in an academic manner. I don't do many videos in my classroom but I do try to incorporate the holiday into learning activities. You can't really ignore it when they walk in with big hats or wings or flapping capes.

I was also reminded today of one of the silly reasons I love middle school; the kids who are there leave and a new group comes in every hour. Today my partner and I switched things around so she could go to her daughter's school Halloween parade. The result was that I had the same group of kids for 3 periods - more than half my day. I did my best to smile and greet them with enthusiasm each time but I was reminded of my elementary experience of having the same kids all day long. There wasn't anything wrong with it at the time, but after being in middle school I have discovered that I like the change throughout the day.

So here we are at another Halloween, the crossroads of the school year. The worst is over and is a memory and the best is yet to come.