The Last Days of School

Three weeks from tomorrow is the last day of school. Last spring I did my student-teaching over a 12-week period, and it felt like an eternity. I started teaching last August, and this year has passed like a dream! I can hardly believe it's almost over. I have fallen in love with my kids (most of them, anyway), and I'm actually pretty sad that I won't get to teach them next year. One of my classes found out that I won't be their teacher for French 2; they asked me straight up if I'd be back, and I'm an awful liar, so I just told them. They were all sad.

I got a nice note from one of my students written last Friday. It made my day! Here it is just as he wrote it, grammar mistakes and all.

May 9 08
Mrs. Taylor,

Hi! I'm writing you to let you know how cool you are. Your really good at french and always on top of grades. You can be serious and have fun. You may notice the heading is on the wrong side. but thats just so its different, like france. Well I think your awesome so I wrote you! Thank you for your help

There are days when I come home loving my job, and days when I come home thinking what did I get myself into?! These kids are crazy! When I get really frustrated with certain kids, I try to imagine what they were like when they were babies and toddlers, or how much their parents must love them. That helps. Sunday I was dreading coming back to school for another full week; Monday I came home feeling sad that I will most likely never see these cute kids ever again.

My school has already hired a new French teacher for next year. From what I've heard, she's an older woman who hasn't taught in a really long time. I've been told that she's nervous coming back, and will be a lot higher-maintenance for her mentor-teacher, the Spanish teacher, who will be there to help her throughout the year. I've also been told she won't be nearly as good as I've been (My cute mentor the Spanish teacher has told me several times throughout the year how amazed she is by my teaching. She says I have a natural confidence in the classroom, and that I perform way above and beyond what a typical first-year teacher can), but of all the people who applied for the job, she was the very best. I just hope that she takes good care of my kids so that they will want to continue studying French through high school. Even more than that, I hope she plays some role in helping these kids turn into good and productive adults.