End of the School Year?

The last day of school kind of took me by surprise. I'm not sure how this is possible, but at the end of the day, when I picked up boy-child from after-school care, I was saddened to realize that I had missed the opportunity to thank his teacher, the principal and vice-principal for their influence this year.

It has been a tough year. I was burdened with grief and solo-parenting, which made two things particularly challenging. As previously blogged, one was punctuality. The number of lates on Sam's report card is appalling. I really struggled with getting myself out of bed and functioning, let alone getting two kids out the door and myself to work in a timely manner.

The other huge challenge was supporting Sam's learning at home. Even in Grade One, he has needed to be supported, particularly in his reading. I am still not sure of how to structure an evening to include getting home from work, picking up two children from care, feeding them and attending to homework, bathing and bedding them, all on my own, and all while wanting to escape from the awful reality of my life into the sanctuary of my computer. It has not been a particularly successful endeavour.

This is where Sam's teacher comes in. She has been patient with me and supportive of Sam. She trimmed down the home reading program to include only the reading, saying she would work on the writing in the classroom. He has managed to get through this year, and so have I. Although I have heard from other parents that they found this teacher to be a little hard on occasion, I have felt supported throughout the year, and Sam has too.

The principal and vice-principal have been so supportive, too. They have always had time to talk when I needed it; they have looked out for Sam throughout the year. When I was cracking up this spring, they put us on the school lunch program, which made it possible for me to get through the morning routine again. 'Course, the lunches were pretty awful, but having them provided for him reduced the need for me to stress about making them, and when I did pull a lunch together for him, I had the satisfaction of knowing that I had done a good job with something.

Even though I didn't get the chance to thank them in person, I offer thanks here, to three educators who made a difference this past year.