There is so much change in my international life. The students I grow to love each year may leave my class/our school with only a day's notice. I am constantly making and losing friends. Transition makes you feel slightly off balance, but eventually you learn how to embrace it and live a full life with it. One of the ways I do this is by holding firm to the constants in my life. I am a single twenty-six year old American woman who teaches second grade. Yesterday one of those constants was challenged and I wasn't just thrown off balance. I was bowled over. And no, I don't have a boyfriend so stop thinking that.
It all started when a friend found a lump. She immediately went to the doctor and then back to America. Yesterday they confirmed she had breast cancer. Our community has responded to this whole situation on our knees and I love that. When she found out that she did, in fact, have cancer, her husband started making arrangements to travel back to be with her. Her husband is one of our third grade teachers. *Transition #1
Yesterday afternoon our elementary principal came into my class and asked either myself of my co-teacher to step up and teach his third grade class. Second grade this year is very small and manageable in one class. Third grade is not small and they need two classes. He left us floored. Either I lose my favorite co-teacher to another grade or I lose her and my class. What do I do? *Begin Transition #2
We talked. We felt numb. We cried. We fought the transition. We came to a conclusion.
Today is my last day (this year) as a second grade teacher. In one and a half hours I'll said goodbye to my class...a class that has stretched me, driven me crazy, made me cry, made me laugh, made me proud, and who I will just plain miss and I will become a third grade teacher for a quarter. All of us cried off and on for the entire time before school ended. I sent every one of my students home in tears. We finished a box of tissues and got another. The third grade class also came down the stairs clutching crumpled tissues.
Now may be when you are thinking, what is the big deal? It's one quarter and she'll be back in second grade. They are just changing teachers.
The big deal is as a teacher you build your life into your students. For those 9 months they are in your grade, they are your children. You teach them facts, how to take care of themselves, how to be a friend, how to have manners, how to love, and so much more. You are a parent. The big deal is that I have to shift my focus from building into these students every moment to building into others. The big deal is that I'm leaving a co-teacher I know inside and out and teaching with a friend that I've never taught with before. None of these things are bad. In fact, I'm excited about some of them, but first I need to give myself to mourn the end of my school year. I need to be sad about not seeing my second graders each day and start being excited working with someone new and teaching some students that I gave my whole heart to last year. I usually have so much more time and warning to mourn my class. I'm so tired and I've never had a headache this bad before. However, I'm going to focus on the positive. Tomorrow, I am going to Xi'an to see some Terra Cotta Soldiers and more. Then I have one whole week to process this....
God please help us all to thrive in this new change.
It all started when a friend found a lump. She immediately went to the doctor and then back to America. Yesterday they confirmed she had breast cancer. Our community has responded to this whole situation on our knees and I love that. When she found out that she did, in fact, have cancer, her husband started making arrangements to travel back to be with her. Her husband is one of our third grade teachers. *Transition #1
Yesterday afternoon our elementary principal came into my class and asked either myself of my co-teacher to step up and teach his third grade class. Second grade this year is very small and manageable in one class. Third grade is not small and they need two classes. He left us floored. Either I lose my favorite co-teacher to another grade or I lose her and my class. What do I do? *Begin Transition #2
We talked. We felt numb. We cried. We fought the transition. We came to a conclusion.
Today is my last day (this year) as a second grade teacher. In one and a half hours I'll said goodbye to my class...a class that has stretched me, driven me crazy, made me cry, made me laugh, made me proud, and who I will just plain miss and I will become a third grade teacher for a quarter. All of us cried off and on for the entire time before school ended. I sent every one of my students home in tears. We finished a box of tissues and got another. The third grade class also came down the stairs clutching crumpled tissues.
Now may be when you are thinking, what is the big deal? It's one quarter and she'll be back in second grade. They are just changing teachers.
The big deal is as a teacher you build your life into your students. For those 9 months they are in your grade, they are your children. You teach them facts, how to take care of themselves, how to be a friend, how to have manners, how to love, and so much more. You are a parent. The big deal is that I have to shift my focus from building into these students every moment to building into others. The big deal is that I'm leaving a co-teacher I know inside and out and teaching with a friend that I've never taught with before. None of these things are bad. In fact, I'm excited about some of them, but first I need to give myself to mourn the end of my school year. I need to be sad about not seeing my second graders each day and start being excited working with someone new and teaching some students that I gave my whole heart to last year. I usually have so much more time and warning to mourn my class. I'm so tired and I've never had a headache this bad before. However, I'm going to focus on the positive. Tomorrow, I am going to Xi'an to see some Terra Cotta Soldiers and more. Then I have one whole week to process this....
God please help us all to thrive in this new change.
No comments:
Post a Comment