There was one more day left of the semester; she only had to make it through one more day before two glorious weeks off for Winter Break. That was the mantra Ms. Mika Wagner kept telling herself as she crossed the parking lot of Foster Elementary School. Don't get her wrong: she loved being a teacher; it had been her dream career since she was little. But this year's class was driving her mad. Lots of behavior problems, every day there were at least ten fights or arguments; she'd had to take away more Class DoJo points just in this semester than she'd had to take away in her previous three years combined. And academically, this was her lowest class. Mika had had to progress monitor over half of her students, and it had been difficult to do. She was so looking forward to break.
Arms loaded down with bags of materials and gifts, she somehow managed to scan her badge and open the doors. She stopped in the main office and presented the two secretaries with their gifts, which they were so happy to get, and then dropped off gifts for her principal and vice-principal, though they had not yet arrived for the day.
"Lookin' good, Logan!" Mika called to the young Resource teacher, who had come to school wearing a garish sweater with a reindeer with a glowing red nose on it.
"What can I say, I love to be festive," he replies before rounding to corner towards his classroom.
Mika smiles, reaching her door and finally setting her bags down to unlock it. Her team teacher, Becky, approaches her and follows Mika inside talking about report cards that were due the next week. The two talk right up until it was time to head out to the playground to collect their kids.
Despite the frigid weather, the kindergarteners ran wild around the playground. They were screaming and laughing and getting along for a change. Parents came up to her, handing over gifts and talking about how their kids loved being in her class so far and it made Mika blush. She hated to be the center of attention.
"Hi, Ms. Wagner!"
Mika turns at the voice, smiling at the young girl. "Hi, Christine! How are you?"
"I'm good!" Christine Booth says. Mika had student taught in Christine's First Grade class and the two had gotten very close. Both were very happy when the next school year, Mika had gotten offered a position at the school. Even better, this school year, Christine's younger brother Hank had been put into her class. "We get to watch movies all day today!"
"Wow, aren't you lucky."
"Yeah," Christine smiles. "Hank says you guys are doing some cool stuff today too."
"Eh, I have a few tricks up my sleeve," Ms. Wagner replies with a sly grin. "Have fun today, okay? And if I don't see you: have a good Christmas."
"I will," Christine says, hugging the teacher before heading to her own classroom.
A few minutes later, the bell rings and there is a rush to grab backpacks and get into line. Mika settles a fight over line leader and soon they are back inside and fully into their morning routine.
After the Pledge and announcements and getting the Star of the Week to take the lunch count to the office, Ms. Wagner pulls her kids to the carpet to start their literacy block. It may be the last day before break, and they may be having a party that afternoon, but Mika was determined to make it as routine as possible for her kids. And her sanity.
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"Ms. Wagner? Did I spell this right?" Hank Booth asks, handing over his writing journal. It was later in the day, nearly time for their party, and Ms. Wagner was roving her classroom helping her kids at their last round of writing centers. Hank's group was working on adding adjectives into their sentences.
"Let's see," Mika says, taking the notebook from the boy. The sentence was clearly written, capital letter to start, proper spacing, a period at the end; his accompanying picture had at least three colors. It was great! Until the unknown word caught her eye.
'I see the big brown rainder.'
"Perfect!" Mika encourages. She knew he'd have to learn to spell it properly one day, but today was not one of them. It was a marking of this time in his life. She was going to leave it.
Mika reaches for her lanyard, pushing the button hung on it that was connected to a wireless doorbell that sang out the song telling her kids it was time to clean up. They line up at the door and Ms. Wagner leads her class down to PE and once they are happily running around the gym, she heads back to her room to set up for the party.
Parents trickle in and strike up conversations, diving into jobs to help the two Room Mom's finish getting ready. Some hand over gifts to the teacher and a few tag-along younger siblings makes themselves at home by tearing into the play kitchen and bins of math manipulatives.
Mika sneaks away to collect the kids from Spanish, and as they walk down the hallway, she prepares them for what's to come.
"So, guys. Our party is next, and some of your parents are here," She quickly quiets their cheers and happy squeals. "So when we get back to class, we're going to go sit on the carpet, okay?" And to the carpet the kids go, but not before saying hello to their parents and friends' parents and looking excitedly at the games, food and activities set out for them. "Alright, before we get started, everyone give a big silent cheer for mom's and dad's who helped out today. Especially Hannah's dad and Barrett's mom." They wave their hands for their parents, and all twenty-five of them have giant smiles. "So, we're going to do stations in our reading groups."
Once Mika sent the groups to their stations for food and games and crafts, the party had begun. Christmas music played from someone's phone and there was a constant excited chatter from her kids. Mika roved around, observing and helping, and talking with the parents.
"Mommy! Mommy! Look! I won!" Hank Booth shouted, running to his mother for a hug, brandishing a temporary tattoo as a prize.
"That's wonderful, buddy!" Dr. Brennan replies, taking the prize her son hands over and watching him run off to play Bingo again.
The party seems to go by in a flash, and soon they are cleaning up and the kids are packing up their backpacks and sitting on the carpet one last time. Ms. Wagner had taught her kids to sing 'Up on the Housetop' with sign language, so they do that for the parents and then she's releasing the bus kids to line up and letting the kids whose parents had come to the party go with them. Hank Booth's dad had been lurking in the doorway and surprises both his wife and son, who hug him before going to collect Christine from her class. The bell rings, the last of the playground pick[up kids are collected, and soon her classroom is silent.
Mika spends some time cleaning up a bit, but then collects her bag and mountain of gifts and heads back down the hallway to sign out and finally start to winter break.