The End Is Coming, But It Doesn't Feel Real

courtesy of Pixabay CC0 Public Domain

Today is the last Saturday before the last day of school for my students for this school year. Somehow, it doesn’t feel like the last Saturday before the last day of school should feel. There are only one-and-a-half student days left this school year. Shouldn’t I be feeling a sense of closure knowing the end of another year of molding young minds is coming to a close?

Report cards are printed. All of the students on our team did well enough to be sent on to Eighth Grade. Every student on our team passed my two subjects, Science and Social Studies, most of them with A’s and B’s. I should feel a sense of accomplishment. Yet, all I feel is tired.

This is the first year in fifteen years of teaching that I am not looking forward to the last student day of school. Perhaps it is because I’ve been with this cohort of students for both sixth and seventh grade and have formed bonds with them stronger than I have with past classes I only taught for one year. I will miss them.

Be that as it may, I am looking forward to the start of Summer Break. I am hoping to be spend the first week catching up on all the sleep I’ve lost throughout the school year. My mind and body both need time to recharge and rejuvenate. Most teachers feel this way this time of year. If you have teacher friends on Facebook just look at some of the posts they are sharing and you will get the idea.

I am also looking forward to spending time planning how I will do a better job of teaching next year. Even after fourteen years in the classroom there are things I can do to improve my teaching. New technologies, information, and methods are always becoming available, and the nature of the students is ever changing. Today’s students need much more hand-holding and reassurance than the students of just five years ago, much less ten years ago. Tomorrow’s students, having been sheltered from the consequences of failure to an unprecedented degree, will need even more.

My Principal has not yet made teaching assignments for next year. I don’t know if I’ll be staying put, teaching the same subjects, or even if I’ll be in the same grade level. And there is always the possibility I will be assigned to a different school. If that happens, I will have a hard choice to make. But I won’t worry about that until it happens.

Monday is the day my grade level holds its award ceremony and gives out certificates for many different achievements by our students. It will be a good day and a final chance to say good-bye to many of my students who won’t be returning for the last half-day of school.

In about 75 hours, the school year will be over for my students. What does next year hold for them and for me? Time will tell.

As always, I remain,

The Exhausted Educator