Movin' On Up

Last Wednesday not only marked the last day of school with my 2009-2010 kindergarten students, but also my last day as a kindergarten teacher. After nine years of teaching kindergarten, I am finally graduating to the first grade! Next year, I will be teaching first grade.

Although the move to first grade was my decision, I have mixed emotions about the change to a new grade level. I look forward to the first days of first grade, when I won't need to teach the students the basic routines (hanging up a backpack, getting in and walking in line, etc.) that I always needed to teach my kindergartners. I am excited and anxious to teach new curricula: For the first time, I'll be responsible for teaching spelling and handwriting. At the moment, I feel a bit overwhelmed by the packing, moving, and unpacking that will need to be completed before the new school year begins. I've already spent a few days over the last two weeks packing up the contents of my classroom (It's amazing how much "stuff" one can collect over nine years!). The custodians will move those boxes and that furniture once my first grade classroom has been cleaned. I have also moved the boxes from the kindergarten storage cabinets into the first grade storage closet. Unfortunately, I filled most of the space on the shelves in the first grade storage closet with my boxes from the kindergarten cabinets. I still have many more boxes from the kindergarten storage closet to move, which means that I'll need to either sort through all of the boxes and purge what is not needed or store some of the boxes at home. Jim probably wouldn't be very pleased with the latter, so I'm thinking that I'll need to spend a few days weeding out the old and unnecessary materials this summer.

I may have some work to do this summer, but I believe that I'll be ready and excited to start the 2010-2011 school year in first grade. I did, however, become a little choked up as I bid farewell to my kindergarten students and to kindergarten last Wednesday. Good-bye, kindergarten! Hello, first grade!