Tonight, my wife will go to bed as a second grade teacher for the final time.

The school year will end for Horry County students on Thursday and so will Sidney’s tenure teaching 8-year-olds. A few weeks ago, her principal asked if she would be willing to move up to fourth grade. Always down for a challenge and a change, Sid accepted. Undoubtedly, it will be a new adventure next year!

Sidney will teach fourth grade next year.

For us adults, an age gap of two years doesn’t make a difference. For elementary school children, it might as well be an eternity. There are a lot of physical, intellectual, and emotional differences between a second grader and a fourth grader. Needless to say, there will be a major adjustment going from 8-year-olds to 10-year-olds. But of course, maturity level isn’t the only new challenge Sid will face. She will also deal with an entirely new curriculum.

After five years of teaching the same units and lessons, Sid will have to create a new playbook. She will teach different material, prepare students for new standardized tests, and update her classroom. But don’t think when I say “update” her classroom that I just mean switch out the posters on her walls. Rather, think “total makeover” as in a brand new room. Sid will move to a different area of the school to be in the same wing as the other fourth grade teachers.

When she returns to Palmetto Bays School next August, I imagine it might feel like her first day of teaching all over again. There will be a lot that she will have to learn on the fly and probably some nerves to overcome. But any anxiety will be trumped by her excitement for this new challenge. Sidney is an INCREDIBLE teacher and can shape minds in an effective way regardless of whether the heads that house them have been around the sun eight times or ten times.

Congratulations to Mrs. Reser on completing another school year and for successfully teaching second graders for half a decade. Have a wonderful summer, you deserve it! Don’t Blink.