Their last day

Well, friends, it's official. My senior students have checked in their books and are finished with Spanish 4. This year feels a little different, though. They are the first class that I've been with for four years. These were the freshmen I started teaching with my first year at Norris. And then I had them all again in Spanish 2 and now again in Spanish 4. I moved with them through the years. They also comprised my study hall for the past four years. Needless to say, we have spent countless hours together.

But it's not all happy times. They have been the group I struggled with the most. I watched a lot of them change for the worse their sophomore year. They were a part of my worst year of teaching. I think back to some of the things they said and did to me as sophomores and I just cringe. I cringe because they are partly just "unique" in their behavior and also because I was such a naive and terrible teacher. But oh my, how I've learned from that year and from them.

I will always think of this class with affection, even though most teachers here are very ready to see them go. And I don't blame them. But for better or worse, these are the kids I "grew up with" as a teacher. For some of them, I was so involved in their lives I feel like I was a weird mix of mom, older friend, and teacher. In four years we've walked through parents dying, kids getting arrested, kicked out of school, the whole bit. But we've also had a lot of fun. I will never fault this group for taking life too seriously, that's for sure. I even had to modify my curriculum to fit their "I really don't give a crap" attitude this year and that was from the motivated ones!

Anyway, I didn't cry today but we have senior breakfast and sign out tomorrow morning and then I think it will feel really final. And then I will spend my weekend going to 30 some graduation parties. Normally I wouldn't try to go to all of these but this year is different. I feel like I owe it to them. The pictures below are pretty telltale of our year this past year. And they make me smile.




They made "grills" out of tin foil today and played gangsta rap. And still asked why the music had to be appropriate. Sigh. At least they're consistent.




I will miss these four a LOT.
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