I've Had a Really Good Year

“If ever there is tomorrow when we're not together... there is something you must always remember: you are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think, but the most important thing is, even if we're apart... I'll always be with you.” ~~Winnie the Pooh~~

My school year is drawing to a close.  One week from today will be the last day of this 2009-2010 school year.  My children are busily tending to the official counting of "get ups." 

The year has flown, and I have had so much fun with this group of young people.  They have come each day, ready and eager to take whatever I could give them.  Even now, as we approach the end, they are still diligently taking notes; still asking dozens of questions; still entering into spirited discussions about environmental protection and the relationships between Christian and Muslim Americans; still curious about how we might use algebra tiles to model equations and so understand ways to find the solutions to things like 3x - 19 = 5.  They volunteer to help, run errands with joy, laugh at my silly antics, and assure me that they will come back to visit next year when they are "big 7th graders." 

Today, I had the whole gang (52 of them) tucked into my swelteringly hot classroom watching a movie while I puttered around with report cards and permanent record cards and packing the book shelves and...  As I was flying around, intent on my business, one of the boys who'd been out to the drinking fountain, pulled me off to one side and said, "I just want to tell you that I've had a really good year this year, Ms. D."  It stopped me in my tracks.  Sixth graders just don't get that direct most of the time. 

Honestly, that breaks my heart.  This is the group of children that I was warned about last spring.  Their 5th grade teachers had an absolutely terrible time with them, and they were just glad to be rid of them by the time the year was ending.  That has been the story for my kids throughout their educational careers.  They have been consistently labeled and treated as if they are incorrigible, bad, impossible, uneducable mosters.  I spent a good amount of time, last summer, wondering how I would manage and handle this rotten bunch of problem children.  Then, they arrived in my classroom, and turned out to be just children -- charming, funny, sweet children.  I've seldom had the good luck to work with a group of students who gave so much back for the effort that I put into them.  Ours has been a positive and fulfilling partnership all year. 

They are counting get ups, and they have had a good year.  I've had a good year, too, and I cannot bring myself to count get ups, because I almost cannot bear the thought of letting them go.  I will.  I must, but oh my, I will miss them dearly.

swan