Confession: I will meet next year’s crop of kiddos on Thursday morning. I will spend an hour with them and smile and prattle. And I will hate them.
Not for always, but for that morning I will. I won’t want them. I’ll be vehemently wishing they’d stayed in their fifth grade classrooms with the teachers who loved them so I didn’t have to fake a smile and waste an hour away from my own kiddos.
Because there are so few hours left. Thursday night my 08-09 Schmidties will graduate – I’ll dab at tears and read their names with a proud and wistful smile. Friday they have a graduation breakfast and at noon I give them one last hug and send them out to their busses as middle schoolers.
Then I shut my classroom door and bawl. And offer a prayer that middle school is careful with them – or if the other middle schoolers aren’t kind, that they remain kind and supportive to each other. And remember that they’re amazing – no matter who conspires to tell them otherwise or what doubts sprout with hormones in the back of their brains.
But Thursday morning I spend with next year’s class. I know I’ll love them. I know they’ll be phenomenal and amaze me in all sorts of creative and unpredictable ways, but right now they’re usurpers – trying to steal their ways into a heart that’s slightly broken with impending farewells.
I know I’ve done my job. I know that each Schmidty feels loved and valued. I know they’ve grown, matured, and changed since September. They are ready – each and every one of them – for the new challenges that middle school will bring them.
I’m just not ready to say good-bye…
Aw, you are such a good teacher. All parents should be so lucky to have their kids in your room and therefore have a teacher who really cares about her kids!!!
ReplyDeleteAwwww bb, you know the kiddos feel the very same way! This year's kiddos KNOW they have the best teacher EVER and don't want to leave, and next year's kiddos probably feel the same way about 5th grade. You guys will need each other to get through it next year, and I have a feeling this year's kiddos will be coming back to visit a LOT. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks T.O.T. & Em. Good-byes are always hard, and this year's crew was especially hard to let go of.
ReplyDeleteBut you're right - they do visit & e-mail and such. And (confession) next year's kiddos seem extremely fun!