the end of an era
this is a big week for me: i am about to begin my last week of teaching school after 11 years, and my little brownie (the kid i've tutored for the last 7 years) graduated from high school yesterday (by the way, who has graduation the weekend of memorial day???). while i am extremely excited, i am a little choked up tonight (very unexpectedly i might add). i going to miss teaching...i had forgotten how amazing kids are.
honestly it has not been a good year for me. i have not seen eye to eye with the administration on some issues, and that has led to some difficult situations (mostly regarding parents). but the kids are so great. they say the greatest things (most of the time without even realizing it), and they mean what they say. there have been so many days when i'm just feeling funky and/or down, and a kid says something either so simple or so prfound, that it changes my entire demeanor and outlook. that's a much more rare ocurrance with adults.
i started a blog a few weeks ago for my kids to read so they could keep up with me and my job situation. i never thought they'd be so interested in what i was doing, but they really are.
last week i cleaned out my classroom and took everything down from the walls...things look very empty and bare. some of the girls have responded to the blog that they are really sad about it. i guess i just felt like i was such a rotten teacher this year (b/c sometimes i let admin make me feel that way in weak moments), and i didn't expect the girls to want me to stick around.
i think the thing i will miss most about teaching is that i know adults will never appreciate me as much as my kids do. i've learned that it's much easier to disappoint the parents/admin than it is to disappoint the students. kids don't seem to hold grudges the way adults do, and i think we should learn a lot from that.
in the last 11 years, i have learned way more from my kids than i could have ever taught them. thus, the ending of an era...
i only hope my new adventures bring as much hope, love, optimism, learning, teaching, laughter, and fun as my previous ones.
posted by paige @ 7:23 PM
2 Comments:
I'm not sure if you wanted your students to be reading this blog but i just wanted to say that you are a very good writer and you have so much to say. Your way with words is truly something different than what i've read before. The main thing that sticks out to me is that with the way you write i can tell the emottions and how they change throughut the entries, which is something i'm not very good at. I admire you for that. I admire you for many things and that is why when i saw you wrote that you thought we didn't want you to stick around i had to review. We love you Ms. Jamail. We would never want you to leave and we are going to miss you. No teacher could ever replace you. There is no teacher like you. You treated us not only as students but as your eqaul and friend. Yes, you were serious and strict sometimes but your a teacher, it's your job. You gave us (the sixth grade) some of our best memories. You will always be one of my most favorite teachers.
Thank you Ashtin! I didn't know you could find this blog (not that there's anything on it you shouldn't see/read). All my job search info is on the other blog if you want to read that one to keep up. I'll know more at the end of this week...
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