Thursday afternoon, June 20th, I hadn’t bothered closing up the classroom because there was still ONE more day of school. Wrong! At the last minute, after I’d left for home, our superintendent canceled school for the official last day(!). I turned around and went back to school. It was a bizarre ending to the school year, but almost appropriate for what teachers and students endured.

This past school year we lost first, second, third, fourth, and fifth grade teachers. I found myself supporting students out of the art room in ways I hadn’t prepared for, but I was able to pull upon my background as a classroom teacher to help where I was needed. I wish I could say it was fun, but it was exhausting. I am so grateful to my colleagues for helping see us through. I also need to shoutout our students for being so flexible and creative, giving us another successful year of art classes. The children bring awesome magic and I’m continually impressed. I’m grateful to the universe and looking forward to a restful summer. I hope to spend the next several weeks in my studio drawing and painting, plus catching up on my reading.