No More Lost Books!

 After approximately 3 days of official summer vacation, I found myself spending hours creating lists of all the things I wanted to improve or change for next school year and researching everything I can about classroom management, organization, and new (to me) units and lesson plans.

After thinking through some of my organizational woes and bemoaning the fact that so many of my cherished and hard-earned young adult books have gone missing over the past two years, I came across this little gem: a FREE web-based classroom library organizer!

I am amazed at everything this program will do. You can import class rosters, track your books' conditions, organize them in about a hundred different ways--slight exaggeration, but you get the point--and from my experience so far, it's pretty user-friendly as well. Just create a free account and begin building your classroom library, either by manually entering ISBN numbers or scanning barcodes with their free app (available for both android and iphone). Woot! Students can even login to check in/out books themselves so it's one less thing you have to manage. I haven't played with it as much as I would like to just yet because a majority of my titles are locked away and inaccessible at the moment, but I am envisioning a delightful few hours of productive library organization when we return. Happy scanning!  

I know that it was time for it to be over. Had I faced another semester or even another quarter with my kids, I would have gone into hysterics. But the end came too abruptly. I wasn't expecting it...I feel like I was on a nice, long distance run and just when I had found my stride and discovered how to make it work, I came up on a dead end. Or better yet, a cliff that dropped off into nothing. There were so many failures throughout the year, so many ways in which I screwed up, made bad judgment calls, or said stupid things that probably hurt people at some point. But the year was full of small but sweet victories as well. 

I could mention grades and test scores right about now or the fact that I passed all of my evaluations on the first try, but the biggest success of all was having the opportunity to spend nine months with a group of kids and watch them grow up--some of them, that is. It was heartbreaking to watch them make bad choices and struggle with the consequences, but it was so amazing to see how they bounced back, how they gained wisdom and maturity in the process. 

Proverbs 14:26 says that "[the Lord] will be a refuge to your children." Throughout the year, that was my prayer...that my kids would find a safe haven in my classroom, that they would be built up in love and encouragement, that those around them would speak Truth into their lives so they wouldn't be dragged down by the lies they believe about themselves. And, of course, God is faithful, and He was so faithfully at work in the lives of those students...my children. Yeah, we learned a lot about English this year--literature, writing, vocabulary, research, etc.--but we learned a whole lot more about what it means to be independent and responsible, how to protect your reputation, guard your heart, and forgive others. And that is one of the most rewarding experiences I have ever had. I am truly honored to have been their teacher and so incredibly blessed to have had those kids as a part of my life.