Farewell 5th Graders

Yesterday was a rough "technology" day, but it ended with smiles, hugs, and a lot of reflection. I got to my office nice and early to make my old students a 4th grade memory slideshow as a "farewell to 5th grade" gift. (They're heading off to the middle school in the fall!) This class is particularly important to me because they were my "last class;" now I'm an iCoach.

Anyway, I spent hours sorting through 5,000 photos and video clips in iPhoto. I got all sentimental as I put the"keepers" in an iPhoto Album... luckily I had labeled my events pretty well. At 10:00 I selected the album, created an iPhoto Slideshow and clicked Export.  A few minutes later, iPhoto crashed and when I re-opened it, my heart started to race. "No, no, noooooooo." Yep, the slideshow didn't export and the album lost all the work I did that morning.

After some tears, I pulled myself together and started all over. I had exactly 1 hour to redo all the work I had done. I frantically skimmed through 5,000 photos and clips all over again, dragged them into a slideshow, previewed the first 8 minutes and was off to my old school.

During the slideshow, my former students and I took a trip down memory lane. They were reminded of logging into their Macs for the first time, learning how to use iLife and iWork apps, math timed tests & data collecting, the CBL science fair, class competitions, butterflies, Hawaii Day, and field trips. I quickly forgot about my earlier iPhoto frustrations, and felt so happy to share this moment with them. My old students gave me hugs good bye, and they were off to lunch.

Yesterday was full of positive and negative emotions, but overall it was such a great day. I cannot wait to see what these students are going to achieve in middle school!