It's Not Good-bye

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I believe that the hardest part of working in the field of education is having to say good-bye. Whether that's saying good-bye to students at the end of the year or students leaving in the middle of a semester. For me, I had to say good-bye to all of my students at the end of this semester as it's time for Ms. Allen to get a new classroom of students. This was not a fun thing to do as I have truly become attached to each and every one of my sweeties. I knew the day was coming and I wanted to not address it with the children. But, my teacher reminded me that it's important to have a good-bye ritual, explaining to the children in a non-emotional way that my time is coming to an end for a specific reason. I had this conversation with my students and of course we did a good-bye hug ritual when my final day came. I teared up a little bit and one of my students asked me why I was crying. I told him that it was because I was sad to leave such a loving class of students and he squeezed me tightly claiming that his classroom would not be the same without me.

As I walked out of my school for the last time of the semester I realized how much feeling accepted meant to me at the beginning but that didn't matter to me anymore. What mattered was that engaging learning was taking place. I wanted my students to walk away from me having learned something new. Whether my students loved me or not was not my top priority, although I hope they did. I sat in my car crying (why is this becoming such a habit?!) because of how beautiful it was to be in a classroom where learning was fun, engaging, and wanted. Each and every one of my students yearned to learn, they wanted to learn new topics and got SO excited when they finally nailed a new topic. This is the reason I teach. I teach to help my students learn new concepts to help them be better, kinder and smarter little human beings. All the while sometimes I feel like I learn more from them.

So, room 209 it's not good-bye, it's see ya later alligators! Thank you for teaching me, loving me and showing me kindness all semester long....always remember, Ms. Allen believes in you.

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