Looking proud in my fish dress!

     I remember shopping in Marshalls and seeing this dress like it was yesterday - the fish dress.  I HAD to have it.  It was June, school had just ended, and I was catching my breath from a long, exhausting school year.  Usually, the theme for the following year's door comes to me in July while I'm relaxing on the beach and my head is clear and open to new ideas.  Not that year, however- that fish dress immediately became the inspiration for my new theme.  I loved the fish door.  It was bright and festive, and each fish was unique and especially made for each student.  We played fishing games, ate Goldfish Crackers and Swedish Fish, and my bulletin boards were exploding with everything under the sea.
     This was the year that I realized that wearing an outfit that matched my theme on the first day of school was meaningful to my students...

     It was May of that same school year.  I was sitting in a room full of teachers grading the N.Y. State ELA Tests.  There was an essay on that year's test that asked the students to write about someone who had given them good advice.  As we were grading this essay, I heard a group of teachers across the room trying to decipher a child's handwriting and they were having a really tough time.  They just couldn't understand what this child was trying to express.  They read off a word or two, but nothing that made any sense.  All of a sudden, I heard one of the teachers say, hesitantly,  "I think it says that she was wearing a fish dress."  My head popped up and my eyes opened wide.  I walked over to the group, and sure enough, it was written by my student, Omar.  He did not have a good grasp of the English language at that time, and his handwriting was very difficult to figure out, but I could read his entire essay. Sure enough, he wrote his essay about me, and wrote about the day he met me when I was wearing my fish dress.  It was the sweetest essay I had ever read.  From that moment on, thanks to Omar, I have always worn an outfit on the first day of school that matches my theme.  I wear it on the first day of school, and the last day of school, and my students love it!  It's the little things that make a difference... like a fish dress.   xoxo