After-School Visitors

I love my students this year.  Really, I do.  They listen well, they work hard, and they are starting to display their personalities and senses of humor, which sometimes takes students a while to do.  Now that we are past all the early out days, guidance counselor presentations, media center orientations, and yearly pre-tests, we are finally getting settled into a routine.

Except for the fire drills that will happen both tomorrow and Friday.  Those will throw off the schedule a bit.  But other than those, we're pretty much settling into "normal."

Besides the daily happenings of my language arts blocks, my favorite part of my day has become the time after the 2:58 bell rings.  No, not because my work day is over.  Trust me, I never leave the building early.  I pretty much run a 7-5 schedule.  And there is almost always work to be done after-hours.

Anyway, I love the time after the bell rings because of the surprise visitors we get.  Every day there have been numerous seventh graders come down to say hello.  It absolutely makes my day when they come back to fill us in on all that is happening in 7th grade.  I really loved my students last year, and I really miss them.  And I'd like to think that them coming down to visit means they miss us a little bit, too.

It's been kind of surprising to see the kids who come back.  Some are the kids that I had expected (and hoped) would come.  Others have surprised me.  It's funny how some of the most frequent visitors are the kids you think slipped by you... kids who you weren't able to reach.  I'd like to think that them visiting us means that we meant something to them or did something for them.  At least I hope so.

I'm sure that as the year goes on, the visits will become less and less frequent as they get more comfortable with their new teachers.  I'm sure that if I want to catch up with them and see how they are doing, I will need to be the one to make the effort.  But for now, I'm going to continue to look forward to 2:58, when we are visited by the fruits of our labor.  It is a time that I truly treasure.