Saturday, June 09, 2007

School's Out!

And the teacher is left wondering if she is the fool...

I still have one more week to serve, but the students aren't coming in. It's a time to do paperwork and clean up the room, etc.

The last day was long, but it came to an end, finally, with a cute little prayer service, awards, and we pushed them all out the door. What made it both nice and hard right at the end was that several parents showed up to say nice things to me. In particular, the moms of Noam and Daniel surrounded me and got very upset and emotional that I wouldn't be back next year. Both of them have boys who are sweet, but struggle academically and sometimes get in trouble, and I've done a lot with them this year. The moms hugged me and told me they had been looking forward to having me as Noam and Daniel's homeroom teacher next year--and I really would have loved to have been, not only for the boys' sake, but because it is a very nice class--and demanded to know why I was leaving.

That was difficult, because how do you say "I'm leaving because the new principal thinks I'm pond scum, and the diocese agrees with her."? I muttered something about working on my thesis. "I'll type for you, just stay here!" Noam's mom said.

1 comment:

Juggling Frogs said...

Mazal tov on making it to the finish line - with dignity intact.

The way you handled this - not sharing the details, not griping about the situation - marks you (in my book, at least) as a class act.

Maybe you could your contact info to the mothers of Daniel and Noam, in case you want to do some tutoring over the Summer.

May the next place appreciate you.