I said kids then, and I'll say kids now. One of the toughest parts of not going back full-time is knowing that I'll have less students. Ideally, it will be easier and I will have less papers to grade and fewer parent teacher conferences to schedule, but students are the best part of this whole thing by far.

I identified that I wanted to become better at crafting purposeful learning experiences for my students. And I just wanted to be better.

This past year, moving from the ninety minute block to the barely fifty-six minute block established the perfect environment for purpose to take the lead. Losing thirty-four minutes every day does not leave room for fillers, busy work and aimless activities.

One of my beliefs in FreshGrade's potential was connecting parents to the classroom using technology. This was a huge undertaking this year and by fourth quarter, I had found a ton of gaps in the way I had rolled out this tool.

I wanted everything to be perfect. I wanted FreshGrade to be the one-stop-shop for my students, their families and myself. I wanted it all, and FreshGrade was the app that was going to deliver.

Since school ended last week, there has been a rush of emotions flowing in and out of me over the weekend. Joy. Sadness. Excitement. Disappointment. Adventure. (Yeah, not really an emotion) Pride.

Part of it is because it's summer and we all love summer. Part of it was because I had completed another year. Part of it is probably related to the fact that next year I will only be returning as a part-time teacher, possibly leading up to two sections of math.