This
year for my birthday, my students planned quite the extravaganza! Being 9 years
old made it hard for many of them to keep their plans secret… they always
started a conversation with me with, “we’re planning a surprise for your
birthday!” And by the time the conversation came was over, I knew all about the
‘surprises’ without any prompting from my end. Regardless, the excitement they
had planning a birthday party for me was enough joy to watch and we had a
fabulous day celebrating!
My birthday
happened to fall on the Monday of Spring Break this year so I celebrated with
my students the Friday before. I was already planning to watch a movie during
three of their class periods to avoid starting new material right before break,
but that also created the perfect opportunity to party. I also supervise the 12th
grade students teaching English at the public school on Friday mornings so my
own students had another perfect opportunity to decorate the classroom and set
up the party before I got to school. By the time I made it to school that
morning, I could see them all running down the hill to greet me at the gate with big hugs and to escort me up to my own, private birthday party!
They
decorated the classroom with balloons (conveniently used in Art class the day
before) and by writing love notes all over the whiteboard.
They
set up a table in the middle of the room with 20 places set (plates, cups,
napkins… the whole 9 yards) and a delicious cake! They had collected money from
everyone to buy this beautiful cake. My favorite part is that they all quickly
agreed I was the best choice for cutting and serving the cake, and pouring the
soda in cups for everyone too.
We
ate most of the cake but some if it ended up on our faces.
We
rounded out the celebrations by watching “Frozen” and hitting a piñata. All of
the kids had so much fun, and the best part for me was witnessing their pride
in successfully pulling off this birthday celebration! They may be little, but they organized a fantastic party (and they knew it too). I could not have asked
for a better birthday with my sweet students!
