It's hard to believe that two weeks from tomorrow will be the final day of school for my students and Noah. This has been a very challenging year. Thirty-one students is the most I have ever had. One third of them came to me as low readers. I am happy to report that almost all of them have made tremendous progress in that vital subject. All three of the fourth grade classes had 31 kids this year. Without my student teacher, Mikaela, to help shoulder the load from January through April we might have all gone crazy. When she had full charge of my class I was able to assist in other classes and cover classes when substitute teachers were in short supply.
Despite a rainy forecast our annual field trip to Kayak Point Park came off without a hitch. It was sunny and warm all day. Warm enough that some of my silly students thought it was warm enough to go wading in Port Susan Bay. Of course that was against my instructions, but since their parents were chaperoning the trip I let it go.
Another end of the year event has also passed by. Noah's Junior/Senior Prom. He went with a large group of kids. Luckily for Noah one of his friends has a step-dad who owns a car dealership which includes a large Escalade limousine for the ride to Safeco Field for the dance.
Noah's AAU basketball career is now over. He played his final North City games on May 19th. Now it's onto summer ball with the high school. They played in a tournament over Memorial Day Weekend. They beat Stanwood and Burlington, with one loss to Lynden. He now has tournaments every weekend through June 22. Then he will go to camp at WSU the week before Hoopfest. The culminating trip will be to basketball camp at University of California at San Diego. Forrest is traveling with the team, and Alyssa and I will join them for the final days of camp. Then we will stay in southern California for a few more days of family time.
After playing in the state tournament Noah has received some interest from a few NCAA Division 3 schools in Washington and Oregon. Hopefully his summer ball and next year's regular season will gain some more interest. He would love to continue playing after high school.
This picture is further proof that the kids are growing up way too fast. Alyssa's best friend, Kaitlin, is on her way to her first post, Bahrain. She will be there for two years serving as a Master at Arms while continuing her criminology studies. Her sister, Rachael, is Noah's age, and is planning on going to vet school at WSU. Alyssa is almost done with her junior year of college at Eastern. She will graduate one week after Noah in June of 2014. She will then complete her student teaching somewhere near home and will then be looking for teaching jobs.
