As we whittle away the last days of 2009 – 2010 school year, Linden Hiller’s take some time to look back on the past nine months. Each year, Linden Hill invites families into the classroom for the annual Portfolio Party. This year the celebration will be held on June 2nd. This is a celebration of the year’s work, events, growth and accomplishments. The concept is simple – looking at the collected works of the year – but it is this act that lets families and children reflect on the tremendous changes children experience in just 9 months.

Over cake and juice, children and grown-ups leaf through the best representations of the year. This collection of intellectual treasures is not just paper, they are moments of a childhood. Seeing piece of work may return us to meeting our new teacher at the ‘Welcome Back Social” or meeting a favorite author during the Washington, D.C. Book Festival trip held in September. A piece of writing may remind us of our first experience using the new cafeteria scanning cards and then, that memory may trigger the seeing our teachers behind the counter at Mc Principal’s night. That was a great night! As we flip through the portfolio, we find evidence of the September Walk-a-Thon in a journal entry, as students collected money for our playground. Next, we find a wonderfully illustrated poem expressing the excitement of October’s “Storybook Character Day,” when Dr. Bradley and Mrs. Brady dressed up as Wild Things.

 When we reach November work, we discover a brochure about our heroes as we prepared for Jonathan Sprout to visit Linden Hill again.  A turn of a page reveals a Flip-Book reminding us of all the things that we can be Thankful for. The dearth of December work takes us back to the beginning of one of the snowiest winters in recent memory with all of the fun-filled snow days. Some students find work in their portfolio from a new teacher as the Linden Hill community celebrated the birth of second grade teacher, Aliza Sawdon’s son, Levi.

A page with a list of New Year’s resolutions prominently declares our ambitions for new and better year. We started the year with a December concert which was postponed due to the first of several blizzards. Mrs. Murphy’s chorus and band brought the house down with a stellar performance. Our work may note that Mr. Palkovitz had been out for many days caring for his new daughter, Tessa. Our observations may indicate that Mrs. Vanderslice is no longer in the school as she is home caring for her new son, Andrew. The third graders find a report in their portfolio tracing their family heritage back to different countries and traditions. We may have memories of the reaching out earthquake victims in Haiti by raising money and donning hats.

The February work reflects the intensive preparation for the last DSTP given in Delaware. We may find examples of writing prompts and practice math problems with detailed explanations of our thinking. However, we find less work in the month due to the amazing snow storms that pounded the east coast. We also celebrated the birth of Mrs. Rawstrom’s son, Harry. February was a month of Linden Hill cheers as Mrs. Huckleberry’s Science Olympians triumphed at the annual competition. We cheered when Ms. Cox’s Leaping Lions placed in their very first jump roping competition.

March memories start with more cheers. We applauded our Odyssey of the Mind Teams for earning a trip to the OM World’s competition. Our jubilation is short-lived as we hit the books in earnest preparation for the DSTP. Right behind our DSTP preparation work, we come across reports, poems, and stories to share for “Special Adult Visitor Day,” when we welcomed our some of our favorite people to spend some time with us.

April came and went with spring break, curriculum nights, roller skating parties, Earth Day, and our last MAP test. May is now upon us and the warm days remind us that summer is just around the corner with the first grade animal research projects, field trips, field day, the talent show, and spring concerts. Fifth grade portfolios may have telephone numbers and yearbooks filled with best wishes for Middle School. Now we wait for June and the birth of Mrs. Faulkner’s child. We also celebrate her nomination of Teacher of the Year.We turn the last pages of our portfolio, we look around, we look at one another, and sigh, “It has been a great year.”