Wow! I don't even no where to begin writing about what happened today.....
It all started back on Friday, April 20th, when my boss, Todd Nesloney, loaded up four school buses and took us to the Scholastic Warehouse to buy books for ALL of our students. He gave each teacher a budget and told us to buy as many books as we could for our students. Definitely a teacher's dream come true.
When I stepped into the warehouse it was very overwhelming. The Scholastic team was opening up there warehouse just for us to come buy books for our students. They also made us the offer if we bought one book we would get one free. It was an amazing deal. Again, definitely a teacher's dream come true!
As I went down the aisles picking the books for my students and seeing so many that the kids would love, my heart was bursting with joy and my mind was overwhelmed. I started piling books into my cart. My cart became overflowing with books and I thought I bet I am over my limit. So, I thought I better go and check out. When the lady told me that I was not close to my limit and that I could go back and get more books, I thought wow look all the books I already have and I could buy more. So, I went back and got more books. When it was all said and done, I bought 272 books for my 17 students. I could not believe how many books I would be giving out. It was hard not to tell my students that I had bought so many books for them when they came back to school the following week.
Moving forward to last Saturday, I went up to school to divide the books out for the BIG revel on Monday, May 7th. As I was taking out the books from the boxes, I was getting overwhelmed again and this time teary eyed because I knew these books would be going home on Monday and that the students were going to be so happy to get books for their houses.
Monday, May 7th was finally here!!! The kindergarten teachers went to the cafeteria during their conference time and started placing their stacks of books for each child onto the tables. Once we were done we placed a plastic table cover over the table so the students couldn't see what was under them. When we brought the kids in, we told them that they could not touch anything on the table. There were many different looks. Some where wondering what was going on. While others were wanting to ask me questions of what is going on. Our assistant principal, Ms. Short told the kids the background information and then started counting down for us teachers to remove the plastic covers. Once we did we heard screaming of joyful kids. They could not believe that they were looking at so many books and that they were able to keep them. Some were laughing because they were so excited. Some of the students told me they could not wait to get home and show their mom or another family member about their books.
Every child in our school took home books today that their teacher bought them! It was amazing to see so many book bags going home today and students wanting to take there books out to read!
I have taught for 18 years and never have experienced anything like this. I work in a small town in Texas and never thought I would be able to bless my students in such away. It just goes to show that as educators the sky is the limit and if you put your mind to an idea it can come true!
