Long time no blog. While 99.99% of our new house is
absolutely wonderful the other 00.01% leaves us temporarily without internet
access. I’m so disconnected. Fortunately we’ll be back online in just a few
weeks. Until then I’ll have to rely on free wi-fi (which I’ve found is becoming pretty common
in more and more places).
In the time since my last post a lot has happened. The boys
and I hiked fifty miles through North Carolina. Some highlights included one
six-mile climb, three observation towers, and twenty-one really cool mushrooms.
We again escaped the rain and, although I crammed an air cast into my pack, I
somehow avoided yet another ankle sprain. Good times.
Not long after returning we began school. Having spent a
couple of weeks moving about from place to place (while we waited for our house
to be finished) it was nice to return to some normalcy. Well, the sights,
sounds, and rhythms were normal. The kids were not. After three hundred and sixty days of learning, laughing, and playing together,
my group from the past two years moved on to a new teacher. They are just two
doors down (literally eight feet away) but it’s weird to see them walk by and
not come into the room. Many wave, and a few even run over for a hug, but
they’re on to bigger and better things in fourth grade. They’re on their way to
outgrowing me.
In the meantime I’ve been busy getting to know a new group.
New groups take a while to adjust to. There are always a few days where you’re
kind of mourning the loss of your old friends and wondering just who these new
ones really are. Who are the funny ones?
Who’s going to recommend books to me? Who loves to share stories? Who has a big
voice that will lead us all in song?
The big voice is actually quite important. I can’t hit more
than two or three notes so it’s always critical to have someone able and
willing to lead the rest of the class in song without having us so far off-key
that the neighboring teachers come barging in with hands clasped over their
ears. It winds up this year it’s Laila. She sings out strong and has a
beautiful voice. I’m so thankful for her. She has us all sounding pretty
doggone good for only two weeks together.
We’re taking it slowly. The first week we learned two songs.
This past week we learned two more. We’re generally a bit shaky for a day or
two but we figure them out in time.
Hoping to help, I asked my old class to come in this past Friday to sing
with us. I was hopeful they would jump in to help this new crop of singers find
the melody and develop enough confidence to sing out strong. Boy did they ever!
The fourth graders could have forgotten the smaller nuances
of the songs. They even could have come
in and acted a bit too cool to sing with us. But they didn’t. They sang so loud
and so joyfully. It was such a touching moment. It was another small reminder
of how special our time together was.
This new group is warming up. They’re about ready to shake
off the rust of summer and do some wonderful things. Among them will be to sing
a lot of songs and even write a few together along the way. I can’t wait to see
their personalities come to the surface as we develop a strong bond of our own.
And, rest assured, we will. Two years from now I’ll be watching them pass by
our classroom door as they steal a quick peek on their way to fourth grade. And
I’ll long for the days we will have spent together.
I'm glad that things are back to being relatively normal for you. Your place is beautiful. Most people would like to vacation somewhere just like your home.
ReplyDeleteStaying with children for two years has such advantages. The beginning of the year for me was old home day, like a family reunion. We picked up, it seems, just where we left off (there was a little rust of course). But perhaps one of the disadvantages could be how attached we become to our classes. Even one-hundred-eighty days is a long time in the life of a little one. But three-sixty? That's a quarter of their young lives.
That first look at the new class is clouded over by missing the old friends just down the hall. But it is a rhythm one gets used to, right? In time our old friends become more detached as they grow toward their new teacher. And the new friends become more like family. It's a good gig, don't you think?
Someone gave me this poem many years ago. I don't know who wrote it. Probably one of those Chicken Soup books. It echos a lot of the feelings you wrote about only from the point of view of the end of the school year.
A quiet tension fills the room
On this last day of school
I expected the exuberance and rowdiness,
But that came yesterday
When there was still one more day to go.
Today the children are disturbingly subdued.
I am embarrassed by my own emotions;
I cannot look at the children directly.
The room is so blank.
The desks are cleaned out.
The last traces of the party have been swept away.
The charts and posters are down for the summer.
So now we sit quietly,
Too wrought even for songs and games,
And we wait for our rides to come.
I expect to see these children again, of course,
But it won’t be the same.
They know it,
And I know it.
They will come around to see me,
Jealous of the new class.
And I will look at a room of little strangers
And miss the familiar faces.
In time
The strangers will become friends.
But every class is different and special;
No new group of children will ever take the place
Of the one leaving me today.
I am already loving having my friends all day. It's a marvel how quickly we are learning about each other now that I don't have to share them with some other adult. And man, I always thought I was a mama bear before, but by jingo, these are MY babies already, and nobody better mess with a one of 'em. (Ya hear?) I hear folks saying that this is the honeymoon period, that everyone is doing their very best right now, and that their true colors will shine through. I'm just sayin' here, but I think by the time the honeymoon comes around these days, most folks are already being themselves.
ReplyDeleteThis year I am also noticing who I am to these people. I am trying hard to make sure I am the kind of person I expect them to be. I guess you could say that I am in the honeymoon period with them, too - I am giving it almost all of what I have to give, and my hair might not be quite down yet... They just adore me, want to please me, and I am working very hard to show them how much I love and want to please them, too. They are putty in my hands, and I have to be careful how I mold them.
And I do miss my loves from before, and before, and before... I love to visit my class photos on the wall and say hi to them, and remember that even when we didn't like each other, we always loved.
Enjoy starting this long relationship with your people.