I am married to the BEST New Teacher of the Year!!

A couple of months ago Eric came home and told me that his peers had nominated him for New Teacher of the Year. He came home a few weeks ago and told me that he had been nominated to the top 4! I didn't even know this award existed! Last night he was chosen out of the top 4 for the award! We were so proud! He worked so hard!

 I can't even believe he is done with his first year! I feel like yesterday we were just hoping he would get a job after several weeks of nothing, even being brushed off by one principle that told him she didn't hire new teachers at her school. Well, last night when we got his award, the lady's signature was on his award. Touche! She apparently had no idea who she let walk out her door.
I knew Eric would be a great teacher, I mean lets face it, Eric is a child himself. But more then just that. I rarely hear teachers talk about their students the way Eric does (no offense to any of my teacher friends, I guess I am a little particle). Every where we go he tells people about his students. He genuinely loves those kids and wants them to succeed not to make him look good, but to make them better. Most of all he defends them, and I have never heard him say anything bad or mean about them. I think every child deserves to have a teacher that loves them, defends them, see potential in them, and believes in them.
  He had six kids leave, six more new kids come. He has had a few with some challenges and one that could barley speak english when she started. When he came home and told me all of this at the beginning of the year I thought he was in over his head, that this was going to be a rough year. But I underestimated him. He embraced it and took it in stride and that child who could barely speak english at the beginning of the year is now reading on almost a 3rd grade reading level. He did the impossible and made reading FUN!! I hated reading until I was in high school. These kids are in the first grade and reading chapter books!! I didn't pick up a chapter book till I was in the 4th grade!! He got 16 iPod touches, and 6 iPads funded for his classroom, as well as hundreds of books, along with some of our own money to make sure the kids had the books they needed for the year. He also had almost every child in his class pass their CRCT.
Overall I believe that he deserved this award. I didn't know the other teachers that were nominated, but I am sure they were great teachers mostly because they were nominated.
I am so proud of him! I still can't believe its almost summer break! I am still accepting any ideas for summer activities for Eric!! =) He is going to be terrible bored. I am afraid one day I will wake up and my house will be some crazy color, or my kitchen table painted black, or a new animal in my house. Who knows! We will start in a few weeks preparing his classroom for the next year.
Thanks to everyone who congratulated Eric and supported us in our careers. We could have done it without the support of our parents through out our college years!
Way to go Eric! I love you pookie!!