There are approximately 1.5 days of the school year left, and tomorrow doesn't count because 99% of the student body is going to Lagoon, and Friday is a half day devoted primarily to signing yearbooks. So basically I'm done! Today the word that kept running through my mind as other teachers asked how I felt about this was, elated. I am experiencing nothing short of this blessed emotion. Google defines the word as : ecstatically happy. I have survived an experience that another teacher once described as drowning in a pool while simultaneously being thrown 99 babies, and told to save them as well as yourself. Thankfully though, I couldn't have asked for a better first year experience. I have had incredible mentors and an incredible department/school. I was very blessed. I haven't been in a position to experience such a relieving respite of duties in a very very very long time. Ever since I have graduated from high school I have been working or going to school or preparing for school for all but a month, during which I was job hunting. It is a great feeling being done done. I am finally graduating after 7 years! What a triumphant day for me and Tommy Boy both.
As the year ends I have my doubts about what I was actually able to teach the students. I am afraid that they will arrive to their english classes next year and horrify their teachers with their lack of any sort of ability to write using complete sentences. Or legibly for that matter. (I have developed an incredible ability to decipher the most cryptic/sloppy/careless types of print during the past 9 months). I wonder if sending your students off into the next grade is anything like sending your kids out into the world: it really feels like what they know now is a reflection on how well I taught them.
These past few days of school have been particularly exciting. I had a 9th grader steal a frog head from biology class and bring it in to my class, begging to use it as a prank on another class. The class was obsessed with pulling a prank, which I was fine with. However, all of their ideas seemed to be wildly inappropriate or illegal. We reached a compromise at stealing some of this teacher's things and putting them in jello. It was totally an office throwback, but I'm pretty sure most of the kids had no idea where the idea came from, and they thought it was pretty neat. I thought it was pretty anti-climatic but I was happy to get them off my back.
This year I have really come to love my students. I have also felt new levels of frustration that I have never felt before, as well as new levels of exhaustion that I hadn't known before. However, in the end, it is totally all worth it. For every moment when you want to pull out your hair, run out of the class room, or say mean words, there are at least three moments where you can see a student actually grasp a concept, laugh hysterically, or feel a sense of accomplishment.
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| They wrote a bunch of nice notes for me. I didn't stop them. |
2 comments:
This is adorable. I want to be in your class and read/learn all the things I didn't care about back then. You are doing great things with you life. As cheesy as it sounds, I'm really proud of you. You're doing something totally selfless and noble because all of the other things you tried didn't fulfill you. You rock Mrs. Bates. HAGS.
My eyes are watering a little. It does my heart good to read that many of your feelings have also been felt by me, and by many other teachers. Selfishly, I think you 'get me' a little more. :-) Those kids were lucky to have you, and I'm proud that a) you survived, and b) you learned so much! and c) no children died in the process! Love you Bo-Berry!
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