Barbara Reynolds took out an old photo album in a resource room at the Edgartown School last week, the pages tinted with age but the memories still fresh as though her students were sitting next to her at the table.

She flipped through the album, pointing out a series of plays her students had done over her 34 years of teaching at the Edgartown School. There were Muppets and characters from Peter Pan, kings and queens, and alphabet letters for Chicken Soup with Rice. She attributed the original idea of class plays to an enthusiastic parent — the late Virginia Poole.

“Her daughter, Katharine Poole, was really into theatre and I was the assistant teacher in her class and she came in to do a play. It inspired me to do plays with my classes,” Mrs. Reynolds said. Katharine Poole, now Katharine (Kate) Murray, is the drama teacher at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School.

“I’m an observer and I watch what other people do, that’s what a teacher does,” Mrs. Reynolds said. “It takes on a life of its own.”

It’s one of many memories Mrs. Reynolds reflected on as she packed up her classroom. Today is the last day of school, and Mrs. Reynolds will retire after more than three decades of work at the Edgartown School as a classroom teacher, reading specialist and most recently as an English Language Learner teacher.

She has a treasure trove of keepsakes saved over the years — class books, student gifts and notes from parents who thanked her for teaching their children.

Parents, fellow teachers (seven of her colleagues are also retiring from the Edgartown School this year), and students — she said she has learned from them all.

“I’ve learned about life and flexibility and about seeing the world through their eyes,” Mrs. Reynolds said. “I’ve seen generations of kids here . . . the parents walk through the hall and say, ‘Hi, you’re still here?’

“For me it’s been 34 years of being on automatic pilot from my house [in Vineyard Haven] to here. I’m very happy, I’ve always been very happy being an educator, it is who I am and it’s been so wonderful to wake up every day and look forward to doing your job. I’ve been very fortunate to live on the Island and stay in the same school and do so many different things — you know, who can do that?”

Barbara Reynolds: “it never gets boring for me.” — Ray Ewing

She said there were many highlights along the way, but the first day of school was always a favorite for her. Those butterflies? Teachers have them too, Mrs. Reynolds said.

“The beauty of education and teaching is every June you’re exhausted and ready to be done and have a break, and then every September you’re revitalized because the job is different,” she said. “It’s a whole new group of kids, new families and curriculum. It never gets boring for me.”

And it is true that Mrs. Reynolds has been able to continuously reinvent herself at the Edgartown School. Everything evolved naturally, she said, from being a classroom teacher for second, third and fourth grade to working in the junior high.

But her passion has always been literacy and literature, and she took her classroom teaching and reading specialist skills to a different level when she decided to create an English Language Learning program for Edgartown students seven years ago.

“Teaching them how to understand English and read English, that’s really been a wonderful experience,” she said. “We’ve had quite an influx of immigrants and it’s been great because everyone wants to learn English, and the goal of this program is to keep them here until they do it and get them into the classroom.”

Mrs. Reynolds said creating the program was a personal challenge. When the school started to get more English learners, being the reading specialist naturally translated into helping students who couldn’t speak the language.

“I took them under my wing because someone had to,” she said. “Using my own skills I figured out how to help them, but what I really am is an advocate for them more than anything else.”

She said students learning English for the first time typically go through a quiet or silent period, taking in as much as they can. And then she looks forward to the moment when it just clicks.

“One day they might string a sentence together and you go, wow, where did that come from? One day they share and then another day they’re writing. I think it’s really fascinating. This is a very safe place for them, so they’ll talk here before they ever start talking in their classrooms,” she said, adding:

“This is all about learning English, they can experiment and get it wrong and there are no peers to be nervous about. It takes awhile but some kids just come in and try to talk and they do it.”

As for what’s next, Mrs. Reynolds will continue her side business of taking photographs of flowers and turning them into note cards sold in Vineyard stores.

And this year when the first day of school rolls around in September, for the first time in 34 years, Barbara Reynolds will be away, traveling in Italy.

“I always feel everything I’ve done has sort of evolved,” she said.