Today, Block 3 said, "Go stand up front, close your eyes, and open your hands. But be careful, you might cry." I almost cried just because he said that. They handed me a card signed by the whole class with little comments like "You're a great teacher," "I'll miss you," "For a first year teacher, you're amazing." It made my heart melt. And, they gave me a very generous gift certificate to Barnes & Noble AND Starbucks. Another girl crocheted me a blanket. Another girl handed me a note saying, "Thanks for helping me out. I brought my grade from an F to a B." It was beautiful. I love these kids, and I'm really going to miss them.

I'm reading Me Books right now. I love reading all their silly love poems, looking at their random pictures, and their collages of all things material. I remember when I was that age I had torn up magazine pictures all over my walls. For some reason, pre-teens love name brands and pop-culture. Likely because they're trying to figure out their place amongst it all. These books really bring me back to who I was at that age.

Today, I caught a kid singing "On the Radio", the song I analyzed for them back in January. I said, "Who sang that?" meaning who was the kid singing. But then almost the whole class yelled "Regina Spektor!" I thought, "they're going to remember this forever." I'm really feeling sad and wistful that this year is over, but I'm also really excited for next year. I intended to read my epic I wrote for Block 1 today, but Joe, the hero of my epic (because he's the one who asked me to write it), wasn't here for the 3rd day in a row. I'm really dissapointed that he doesn't show up to school anymore, and am worried about him in high school. But he might be retained anyway. Which makes me worry even more.