Done with Darby Elementary: Year One with DoDEA is in the Books!

I made it! Year One working for DoDEA is in the books. Even though it wasn't a complete year, thanks to that 3-month-long background check, I still feel like I made the best of December 2021-June 2022 at Darby Elementary School! Check out these Spring highlights:

March 17: Wear the Rainbow

Back in March, AFN, the military tv and radio people, came out to Darby for the day. To showcase our unity, each grade level wore an assigned color, while our specialist wore white and our Sure Start preschoolers wore black and gold. Then the entire school went out on the field for a colorful rainbow group photo. Squint hard, and we look like a rainbow, with a bunch of clouds on one end and a pot of gold on the other end. Its artistic liberty; just go with it.

May 4th: Star Wars Day

By May, we were beginning DoDEA end-of-year testing, so I had to get creative. The kids are done by the afternoons most days, so what better way to get them hyped for their library time than to celebrate Star Wars Day?! May the 4th be with them during their testing!

When Adeline, one of my sweetest 2nd graders, found out I was doing a Star Wars display, she asked if she could stay after school and help me set it up. Her mom is one of our kindergarten assistants, so Adeline has started stopping by to see if she can help me reshelve books in the afternoons. She laid out this whole display on her own and then brought me a sign the following morning to hang up that said "This library display was made by Adeline Maxwell, Mrs. Clausing's second grade." Gotta give the girl credit, she did good!

May 25: World Cultural Day

Nurse Mary hosted a World Cultural Day at Darby at the end of May as a way for our students to showcase their families' culture! Students dressed up, brought in props and signs, and some classes even allowed parents to bring in diverse cuisines for lunch! We had a parade around base with boppin' music! Lots of flags were flying, smiles were made, and our community even came out to dance it out with the kiddos! SO MUCH FUN.

May 27: Top Gun Movie Date

Now, nothing says "beginning of summer" like a date night to see Top Gun: Maverick premiere at Main Base! We went to their 6pm showing, where we photobombed my man Tom in a photo booth out front! I even got to wear a flight helmet! WHA!?

The movie was so good, that I jokingly said I could see it a second time...and Bryan called my bluff! We looped around the parking lot, bought tickets for the 9pm showing and were back in our seats for another round of Top Gun: Maverick. Any regrets? None.

Did Bryan go see it a third time when the ship showed it for free two weeks later? Yeah he did!

June 1: Flower Growing Competition

Back in early March, our student council hosted a flower-growing competition between all teachers and classes. We were each given a random bulb, and the kiddos had to research the best way to grow their plants in their classrooms. Since I didn't have a class, I "researched" by Google Translating the label and texting my in-laws for help. Kevin and Jennifer told me to plant it in a big pot and water it twice a week.I sent them updates throughout the growing process and thought I would be lucky if it stayed alive.

I had to use this as a learning opportunity too, so since I had taken all these progress pictures to send to Jennifer and Kevin, I made some signs to show the kids the growing process and timeframe. Every week, I had students asking questions about my growing process, comparing their class plant to the library plant, and some girls even sat beside it and read to it during their class checkout times!

Well, in the end, I won the competition! My plant was the only one in the whole school to bloom! I was supposed to get a gift card as the teacher winner, but instead, the student council agreed to let me use my winning as a way to host an additional competition: library edition. The first entire grade level to turn in all their library books would win a popsicle party!

Best $25 gift card I have ever 'won.' I had the kids rushing to the library every morning to turn in books! They would chase me down in the halls asking if everyone in their class had turned in their books. I had announcements every morning for a week with updates! By the last day of school, I only had 3 books missing in the entire school. Not too shabby!

June 6: Ramen Date Celebrating the Last Full Day of School

Bryan knows the way to my heart is good food and day adventures, so to celebrate my last full day of school, AKA the second-to-last day of school, we tried out a new Ramen place in Haiki! The ramen and gyoza was delicious, but the company was the best! As we left, we realized this was the ramen shop that has a ramen vending machine! You can buy their ramen prepacked in frozen bags that you take home, boil in the bag to defrost and heat up, and then dump the bag's contents in a bowl for their homemade recipe anytime!

We will definitely be back to try out the vending machine options! Where else in the world do they have ramen vending machines?!

June 7: Last Day of School!

Happy, Happy Tuesday! Its been a few years since I have had the chance to wear my "Happy Last Day of School" shirt! As the kids left the building for their early dismissal, the entire staff waited out front with bubbles to send them off with lots of cheers! The kids loved walking out the front doors to the cheers, music and bubble party happening as they got on the buses and headed home for the summer!

Once the students were all gone, a group of teachers went to Jam Coffee for lunch to say goodbye to Mrs. Martin, one of our 5th-grade teachers who is moving to a school closer to Tokyo. While I may have started the school year late, I have loved getting to work with some amazing teachers from all over the US!

Group Photo (from left to right): Mrs. Jackson-Jones (4th), Mrs. Settles (PSCD: Preschool Services for Children with Disabilities), Mrs. Miller (Special Education Assistant), Mrs. Peyton (amazing full-time substitute), Mrs. Martin (5th), Me, Dr. Hecox (AAPS: Advanced Academic Programs and Services), Ms. McKean (4th)

Hugo was not a fan!

Lunch at Jam Coffee

Me, Peyton, Miller, Martin

Peyton, Settles, Miller, Me

June 8: Final Teacher Workday

As you know, teacher workdays at the end of the year, are for cleaning, organizing and prepping for the next school year. I got to work at 7:30 am, knocked out the final few signatures I needed for my summer checkout list and turned in my keys! I was DONE.

While I ran around collecting my final signatures, little Miss Adeline came to work with her mom and offered to help me in the library. This girl came at the perfect time because I had just received 50 new graphic novels from our awesome PTO that needed our school address stickers added. So with my helper in the library stickering books, I turned in my keys for the summer and was ready to peace out!

That night, Bryan and I met up with Meg and Mike for dinner in the Ginza near main base, where we found a little hole-in-the-wall Udon restaurant to try! Do we know what we ordered? Not really. Was it good? well...I learned that I'm not a fan of Udon noodles.

After the first bite, I told the table it's what I imagine the texture of eating juicy slugs was like. That about did it in for the whole table. Sorry guys! But the pork and chicken on rice was good!

Year One with DoDEA Pacific is in the Books! I can't wait to see what August brings, but I know this summer will be filled with reading by the pool!

--Katie