The Books Will Remain

As I sat around our classroom recently gathering my materials for the next day, I looked around at the border, posters, and objects I'd arranged in my classroom at the beginning of the year. This year, I decided to NOT put up premade displays, and instead have my students' work be the focus. I'm still glad I did that. I can see the drawings and handmade signs and smile. It was always their classroom. Not mine.

Our classroom library

 

I also see the classroom library and I remember those 3 days in July that I spent setting it all up. Arranging and rearranging. Weeding. Buying new titles. Labeling those plastic boxes. So many printings of labels! (I held up my own schedule because I often stopped to reread titles as I worked. I couldn't help myself!) Now, I look at the books and think of the students that read them over the year. I remember the first trip to the classroom library on the first day of school. And I remember the trips I made to the bookstore to fill my library. Worth every trip and every dollar.

As I pack up these books at the end of year (approaching very quickly), I will remember so much about my students, our library, and our reading.

I will remember the book talks and conversations. I will remember the excitement over new releases and the circling of Tuesdays on our school calendar. I will remember meaningful conferences with readers, the sign-up sheets for sought-after titles, and the towering book stacks on the corners of desks. I will also remember the lost books--so popular and coveted they never returned to my classroom library. (I am confident  they are with the readers who really need them.) I will remember my joy as I glanced over and saw readers with their noses in their favorite books. I will remember 5th graders walking into my classroom library to check out books, how our principal borrowed HOW TO STEAL A DOG after sitting in on a discussion, and my own faculty book clubs with fellow teachers.

The time will come to a close. The calendar will tell us the year is over. There will be no more talk around the shelves as my students decide what to read. But the books will remain in readers' hearts, and hopefully, my students will cling to their love of reading forever.

As my students and I take the next step in our life's journey, book will remain with all of us. The books will always remain.