Thank your custodians

A week of in-service begins for us tomorrow, but I made my own triumphant return to the school last Thursday. I helped with preregistration (mostly enrolling bilingual kindergarten students) on Thursday and Friday. Friday especially was a stringent test of my limited Spanish -- Yo soy un maestro, por favor, ok? Bueno, gracias!

When enrollment was done for the day, I was able to spend some time in my classroom. The very first thing that I noticed upon walking through the door was the plant sitting on my window ledge.

The fact that there was a plant there did not surprise me. The fact that the plant was ALIVE surprised me very much.

This was an Easter lily that I brought into my classroom at the beginning of the last school year. I took it from my grandmother's funeral, which had been the Friday before classes started. I'm really not a plant person. My thumb is anything but green. But I decided to take on the challenge, and I figured it would be nice to have something live in my classroom besides me and the kids.

For the most part, I was successful. A few leaves turned brown, the potting soil got a little dry at times, and we won't even talk about Christmas break.

But at the end of the school year, I kind of forgot about the plant, and just left it in my classroom. That was May 25. So to walk back in nearly 3 full months later and find it not only alive, but thriving, was quite a surprise.

Turns out that the custodians have been watering it and making sure it gets sunlight. How cool is that?

Very cool, in my book.