Memories: My Last Day of Teaching

First Post of the Day

Eight years ago yesterday, I retired from teaching. It was earlier than I'd wanted, but my health was tanking. 

It was a wise thing to do - in those eight years I've had five major surgeries, a precancerous mass on my pancreas removed, a year and a half of hemiplegic migraines (which stopped as suddenly as they began), and more. Honestly, there have been days when I have been very, very grateful that I was retired and not having to worry about my students.

Local schools finished up yesterday and I felt a little blue that I was not at Hershey, standing on the sidewalk, and waving goodbye as the kids left for summer break.

This is a Hershey tradition that I loved - eighteen buses full of kiddos chugging past

while the entire staff stood outside waving goodbye to each bus. (It took four videos to capture it all!)

A fellow staff member had suggested that I make a video of my classroom before closing it down so that I could always remember it.

So, just before the kids came in for their last day and began helping me remove posters and projects, pack up books, and take the room down to four walls, desks, and chairs, I grabbed my phone and filmed it as it was.

I am glad I did - looking at it yesterday made me smile, cry, and remember some awesome times with students. Good memories.

On that very last day of teaching in 2018, my students had surprised me with this video - each one had written me a note and then one girl and her mother had spliced them all together along with photos from our classroom web site into a video message that I treasure to this day. (And it ends with Abby!)

I pulled up that video yesterday and watched it with fondness and (no surprise) a lot of tears. 

Thanks, folks. I love you, too. (And your video still makes me cry.)

The fourth graders in my classroom are all graduating from high school this weekend and the fifth graders just completed their first year of college, gap year, or employment.

Congratulations to you all and best wishes for a very bright future. I hope it's so bright that you'll need to wear shades, just as you did in the video!