The best four years of my teaching career were spent team teaching a blended class where 1/3 of the students were learning disabled. Almost half my career was spent teaching special education, but when this opportunity arose, I had moved back to the regular classroom teaching fifth grade. My friend, Karen who taught special education, and I had great success with this model and loved every minute of it. When the district stopped funding blended classrooms, we continued to work across the hall from one another for many years. After a year or two, she ended up switching to the fifth grade as well. She didn't start her teaching career until her kids went to school, so she had a few more years to put in after I retired. This was her last year, and now we'll get to see more of one another!
Four of us celebrated her retirement with a dinner with last night. Her lovely party was earlier this month, but I saved my gift and card for the more intimate celebration.
Every fall, Karen and her husband travel with us to Niagara-on-the-Lake for the Shaw Festival and some touring of our favorite wineries. This "Uncorked" set from Papertrey seemed perfect, and the card is a close copy of one Nicole Heady created for the release, although I changed up the colors and used a different floral set by Simon Says called "Life is a Journey."
A former neighbor is also ending her teaching career this year, and I found this card on Danielle Flander's blog and couldn't help but recreate it. Love the design and the message.
The patterned paper is from Simple Stories, and the tag is the Tag Sale #11 die cut. The stamps are all from the Monthly Moments line: "Travel Plans" and "July."
I hope both these ladies enjoy retirement as much as I do!
