S'more teachers like YOU! +printable, & a confession

Sorry I didn't post with a fun little appreciation token for you to give your coworkers today. I didn't give one to mine today. Maybe it was a sign of my day to come. The title I would really like to have had for this post was "Chalkboard Confessionals." My morning began with my stomach in knots. As a first-year teacher I had never sat through retention meetings. I sat through one a few weeks ago but I didn't know it was going to take place. It began as just a meeting and in the middle of my AP translating in Spanish, she turned and looked at me and said it had now become the retention meeting. After today I have now sat through three more.

Of the four students I submitted for retention, three will be retained. At the end of those two hours, there was a part of me that walked away with a smile. I felt vindicated. I felt like someone finally saw what I had been seeing for months. Then it began to sink in - had I failed these students? What if they had had a different teacher who could have helped them better? What if they had gotten to stay with their original teacher from the beginning of the year? Did I really do the best I could for them?

I suppose it's normal to have those days as a teacher when we feel like maybe we have let our students down. Sometimes it happens to coincide with the weeks or days when others leave us to feel no matter how hard we try we're just not gonna get it all right - somewhere, somehow, one of the balls we have juggling is going to drop. Mine did today. <-- there I confessed. I feel better now. Maybe I can appreciate some coworkers again tomorrow.

With that said, here is a printable I made. I am going to put these labels onto a plastic bag in which I put two marshmallows, a snack size bar of Hershey's, and two graham crackers:

I got the idea from these here, but I am too lazy at the moment to print these, cut them out, and staple or glue, so I went with something that I could have on labels. I will not be offended either way. Hers are probably much cuter. :)