June Happens

      In these parts, summer break starts at the end of June, after the longest day of the year and long after the peonies have lost their glow. Summer break starts after some hot and humid days in classrooms without air conditioners. June can be a long month and yet in some ways, it flies as we rush to finish curriculum and measure student progess .  Every year, like clockwork, there are students who progressed slowly for 9 months and then, as June happens, they begin to blossom, like late blooming peonies! Perhaps that is why I say, "In my reading room, things heat up in June!"

      "That doesn't sound right," she said with an intonation that was eerily familiar, "Maybe I should switch the sounds."
     "Beginning to monitor for meaning and attempting to self correct," I write on her reading record  thinking, "It's June, so NOW this first grader is taking off!"

      During the next group of formerly reluctant learners, I hear, "Can we write today?" as they reach my table.
      "I guess we could," I respond as I smile a grateful smile and adjust my plans remembering that not so long ago, these emerging readers and writers did not understand the concept of a word!

      In these parts, June is filled with the culmination of 10 months of hard work. Learning blossoms as June happens.