Reward for a job well done

Yesterday I had a pizza party after school with my two classes from last year to celebrate the improvement in their state test scores (see the end of a previous blog for details). Somehow they scarfed down all 108 pieces of pizza and 3 liters of soda (no, I don't endorse soda drinking in kids; in fact, I vociferously condemn it, but it came free with the pizza and "everything in moderation" right?) in roughly 15 minutes.

I had emphasized the importance of the test all year. A lot was at stake. If we didn't meet the goal set for our school by the state, our charter would likely be taken away by the district and we would lose our bilingual program (most bilingual education programs in California became extinct after the passage of Prop. 227 several years ago).

They were just as I remembered them. This may not be surprising to you, considering that I last had them in my class only about 2 and a half months ago. But a lot happens over the summer. I tend to forget (block out?) a lot of the bad stuff and end up with an edited, nostalgic image of the recently finished school year. They fit the image perfectly. A very special group.