By Denise Bell
Working in an elementary school this past two years has really opened my eyes to the ups and downs that children face each and every day. They enter the school building with big bright eyes, nervous smiles, tears running down their cheeks, and arms loaded to their limits. Each child, each little precious one, comes with their own little personality, abilities, and emotional limits. As parents we trust in the educators that we turn our children over to day after day, to pick up where we left off. My children, I am lucky enough to report, enter a caring environment each day. They are lifted from their lowest lows to their highest heights by the teachers and staff members that they come in contact with. For this I am grateful as I realize that these people often spend more time in the day than I do with my children.
So as I took pictures of the kids in their new backpacks and tennis shoes this year, the thought crossed my mind that I need to get a better "picture" of what going back to school looks like to my children. For example, as I create a back to school scrapbook page for them shouldn’t I get a picture of the people who greet them each day as they enter the school parking lot? I want them to remember Mrs. Hanson and Ms. Quinn who walk out to greet them as they cross the road each morning.
How about Mrs. Lucky? No one will ever forget her. She is the first face they see if they come in through the wrong door in the morning. Undistinguishable by a small child, yet any adult that knows her would notice that as she scoots them back out the door in the right direction, she has a giggle held back in her throat that is waiting to explode into a laugh because she thinks they are so darn cute. Oh, and they also have to face her and receive a tardy slip when they are late. 
It’s inevitable, she will give them the slip, tell them to hurry to class, and then call after them on a first name basis, “have a great day"! I can’t go on without mentioning Mrs. Buckley. She’s the lady in the office that knows everything. If a child needs to call their mom or missed the bus, wants a band-aid, or simply can’t hold still in class, Mrs. Buckley knows what to do. She has the phone number, the ice, the band-aids and the maturity along with the experience to discipline with just the right touch.
As we go about our day as parents, I bet we rarely notice the people that prepare and serve lunch for our children. But the children do. A common after school topic at my house is how nice the lunch lady is that lets the 5th graders have seconds. I also think that it takes a special person to get my third grade daughter to want to wash tables rather than go out to the playground. 
Now, I want to make sure that the school counselor, our enthusiastic music teacher, the librarians, the bus driver, and the P.E. teacher are permanent faces in my children’s elementary school scrapbooks. Without them, elementary school would not have such a delicious variety of flavors. Before I worked at the school I didn’t realize what a vital part the custodian plays in the lives of my kids…..He puts the tables up, he puts the tables down, he sweeps and wipes and cleans up all the unsightly messes that most of us don’t even want to think about. Not to mention he is tall and can reach all those too high places that even with a latter some of us can’t. So, let’s keep him in our scrapbook pages among the faces of people that we owe a debt of gratitude to, or at least a jelly doughnut.
At the top of my list of important school pictures would of course be the classroom teacher and the principal. They work endless hours, and most of the time thankless ones. I want to thank them. They are doing for my children what I can’t and I will forever be thankful to them. I want my children to have an attitude of gratitude also, so how about thanking them with a scrapbook page or two. I’m always scrambling for a thank you gift idea.
So I started thinking, wouldn’t it be fun to let my children give their teacher a gift to last a life-time? They could even include the whole class in this end of the year surprise. Pictures of the students participating in different activities throughout the year, hmmmm…I think this idea is a winner!
So as your kids go back to school think about all those scrapping moments that are happening right now, and don’t forget all the IMPORTANT PEOPLE that make your child’s school experience a memory to last a life-time!
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