It's So Hard to Say Goodbye

Each and every year (yes, all of them) that I have been in the classroom I have cried when it was time to say goodbye to the kids for the last time.

This year, I knew it would be even more difficult as my class was one of the best classes that I have ever taught and this year was one of the most liberating, invigorating, and fun classes I have had in years. Additionally, June 4th (our last day) was also marked 2 years since I lost my mom.

We started the day with awards they had earned during the last trimester and then used shaving cream to clean their desks. This was the first year that this didn't turn into a huge fiasco. Maybe because the kids were so wonderful about it but more likely than not it was because I finally got the shaving cream to student ratio correct.

I always use shaving cream to help clean the desks and it always seems to end up everywhere, takes too long to clean up, and the kids end up wearing as much, if not more, than what they used on their desks. This year, I used slightly less than 1 can and there was not a shaving cream covered kid in my class! I call that success! (It only took 11 years to get it right!) 

As if to mark the lack of tech issues we had overall throughout most of the year, we ended up having a great deal of difficulty getting Charlotte's Web to work via the Mac. We finally achieved success but as a result they didn't get to see the very end which was a shame because we read the book and they had never seen the cartoon movie. 

Finally, it was time to say goodbye and the tears were flowing as always. Everyone I know says that one day I won't cry at the end of the year but I wonder if that is true as I am still crying after teaching for more than a decade. This year I even had two parents cry when they said goodbye. I loved this class! (But I love them all really.) 

One thing that I have loved about teaching with tech is that my kids have felt comfortable emailing me outside of the classroom. Since school was dismissed I have had one student email me several times just to check in and see how I am doing as well as others email or stop by (I spent part of last week redoing my walls - I will reveal them in the fall) after summer school. 

I fall in love with my kids each year, and their families too. I think it makes me a better teacher, but it also makes the last weeks of school so very hard. So I just have to remind myself of this quote from Winnie the Pooh:

How was your last day? Do you cry too? If not, how do you not fall apart (I would really like to learn how to mange this myself)?