Portrait of a Third Grade Teacher

Today was the last day of my fifth year of teaching.  I sent home 26 little babies home for the summer, only to come back as fourth graders.  With summer at the tips of our fingertips the past week, engaging activities to do with them were hard to come up with.  At one point, I decided to throw caution to the wind and I assigned my students the task of drawing their teacher. 

Here is what they came up with:

Above is obviously me on a good day.  Below is me on a bad day.

Some drew me uber skinny in an effort to boost my self confidence:

And some kept my self confidence in check by highlighting my wrinkles and bushy brows:

Some needed to label me, to make sure I knew who I was looking at:

Some showed that they paid close attention to my little peccadilloes and drew me teaching with my glasses off, which I am prone to do, given that my specs give me a headache while I'm teaching.

A couple of kids drew me with my baby, almost an honorary member of the class, given that I talk so much about him.

I will leave you with my favorite; one that shows what I strive to do every day, and that's cheer for my kids:

Plus, it shows my freckles.  This kid paid attention.  (And don't you love the exclamation points on either end?)

When I thought about how I could best draw my students, all the lines became blurry for me and I wondered how this artistically challenged person could do them justice.  Instead of trying to replicate all their pretty faces, I drew a feeling:

I {heart} them.