They're gone...

... My students have been gone for 45 minutes now, and I feel as if I've just gone through a break-up. I miss the good times horribly (even though there were countless bad ones), and I cried a lot the last 15 minutes before the kids left. One of my "tough" boys even teared up. He's this completely macho Mexican-American kid (I only bring that up because it's such a deeply-embedded part of his identity) who rides bulls and is a super athlete and student... He told me several times, "You're my second favorite teacher ever. Almost first." (This actually means a lot to me, even though he's only had 5 teachers at this point in his life.) He shyly (!!) came up to me at the end of the day (with only 1 or 2 students as witnesses), and said, "I'll miss you." He gave me a hug, too!! When he pulled away, his eyes were all teary. I lost it then, and just then 3 of my girls came in and we all cried and hugged. I will miss most of them horribly. I promised to come back and visit next school year (which I will absolutely do!!!), so that helped a bit.

I also introduced them to Grammar Girl today. I ran across the hallway to the library, donned a cape and headpiece, and exposed a shirt on which I had drawn a large "G" for Grammar Girl. I came back into the classroom, numerous atrocities of modern language (see below) in hand. I, er, Grammar Girl, spazzed out on them, shrieking, "What's wrong with these people?!?! How do they get away with this?! Bad language use is my Kryptonite!! It'll kill me if you don't help me stop it!!" A lot of kids really bought into the whole deal, asking me, "Where's Ms. Anderson?!" ("She was kidnapped by my arch nemesis, Grammar Goblin!") or "How do you know our names if this is your first time in the classroom?!" ("I've been spying on you all year, and I'm very close with Ms. Anderson.")





Anyway, it's time to do inventory and pack up the classroom... I'll write more later. Peace!