Last Day

Last day of the term:
I gathered the kids in a big circle this morning and told them we would be saying some goodbyes today.

First of, we all need to say goodbye to Zann because he is going back to China. His one-year visa is up and it's time for him to go home. He's made tremendous progress lately. He started out as a major trouble maker because he didn't understand any English and was bored silly in class all day. So he'd throw paper airplanes or make funny faces or throw things or whatever. The only words he would say were "NO" and "F**". Finally about 10 weeks into the school year, he became known as the expert at Sudoku puzzles which one of the maths groups was doing. They started to ask him for help. He felt important. I brought him a giant interconnected quintuple Sudoko to keep him busy. He brought it back the next morning, solved. I was hoping it would keep him occupied for a few days, but he had finished it in 4 hours! Next, he began to say a few words to me like, "Miss, help me" and he gave me chocolate at lunchtime. I taught him how to play Battleship and he started to make friends. In the last few weeks, he had even started to sit with his reading group on the carpet when it was their turn. On the last day, his group was reading round-robin, and he read his assigned section aloud when it came to his turn. In English! That was huge progress. He'd started out as a major hellion and ended up as a bit of a class mascot. He still didn't do any of the work we did, but somehow we all got used to having him around.

The second goodbye that day was to me. I told them I hadn't been doing a very good job as their teacher and that I was going to be a librarian now. Nobody seemed terribly concerned. Mostly they wanted to know who the new guy was and if he was strict and if he would still give lollies to the winning maths group. (Beats me) A few girls were upset because they genuinely liked me (and my books) and I knew they'd miss me. One of them, Emily, told me later that she almost cried when I made the announcement. If I'd had a room full of kids like Emily, it would have been heaven! But even she knew that this class was not going well.

So that was it. It was pretty anti-climactic.

Our class was having a shared lunch today, the last day of the term. Everybody brought something to share. About 5 people brought bags of potato chips and about 15 people brought CHOCOLATE! They know me so well. The kids didn't know it would be a goodbye lunch for me, but it was.

I spent the rest of the day cleaning out my desk and trying to pack. I also had one more parent conference at 2:00.

At 2:30 I started a goodbye card for Zann which everyone signed including the PE teacher, etc. He liked it. Ellie and Laurie had made a card for me and had gotten it signed by our class plus other students plus other teachers. It was really nice of them to think of that! I would never have expected them to be the ones to do something so thoughtful. Thanks, girls.

At 3:00 the bell rang for the last time and I gave everyone a goodbye hug. A few boys graciously expressed their desire for me to stay. It made me feel good. I had a special farewell with Marcy who is a great kid but is going to need to make good choices in the next few years. Every year, there's always a few special students that I become extra-attached to; who seem to need me more than others. (Last year it was Cassie and Mariah) This year it was Marcy and Patricia. They have great potential, but will have to avoid the pitfalls of their neighbourhood gangs and the temptations of drugs and alcohol. I hope they make it. I hope they keep in touch. My final goodbye was for Emily, who is a miniature version of me. We were both in tears by this time. I feel so bad for deserting her. What a sweetie. She's coming in on Monday to help me pack.

And so ends my adventure as a New Zealand teacher. It didn't go as I'd planned. I cried.