You say it's your birthday

Martin: "Miss Brave, is it true that I have a big head?"
Miss Brave: "Who said you had a big head?"
Martin: [evasive pause] "...people."

* * *

Yesterday was my birthday! Because I am the kind of person who enjoys a shameless amount of birthday hullabaloo, I made sure all 420 of my students knew about my birthday. To my older students, I read Patricia Polacco's Some Birthday!, and to my younger students, I read Frank Asch's Happy Birthday, Moon. (After we finished reading, one of my hyperactive ESL first graders inexplicably asked where God lives. I believe my eloquent reply went like this: "Uhhhhhhh...that is a very complicated question!" His classmate responded: "In the sky, of course!")

All my self-promotion paid off: Today (I saw none few of my students yesterday because I was in all-day planning for next year -- the best school-related birthday present of all!) my most perceptive students remembered to wish me a happy birthday! Cutest of all, my afterschool group (who has really been hearing about my birthday for ages because one of them had her birthday on Sunday, prompting endless discussions about which one of us would turn 9 first) launched into a rousing chorus of "Happy Birthday to You" when I walked into the quiet room.

I positively adore birthday hullabaloo.

In other news, with only 12 days to go left in the school year, I'm getting more and more indecisive about whether I'm coming back next year. The teacher whose position I'll be filling next year is retiring, and she has been extraordinarily helpful in preparing me -- the kind of support I lacked entirely when I first started at the school. I'm finally forming relationships with the teachers I'll be working with, and our first planning session together left me feeling a tiny bit exhilirated; it was so nice to be working as part of a team, bouncing ideas off each other and snickering at Lucy Caulkins' ridiculously over the top language in the curriculum calendar. At one point, one of my slightly intimidating colleagues said to me, "Everything you do is so ELL-friendly. I love your lessons." I think I may have actually beamed with pleasure.

So, obviously, I haven't told a soul that there's a possibility I won't be back. Awkward!