goodbye, grade 2.

Last Thursday was the final day of my internship in a grade 2 classroom. The day seemed to fly by despite my wishes that it would crawl. I didn't want to say goodbye to the people I had spent 8 weeks with. I didn't want to say, "See you later." I wanted to say, "Have a good weekend! See you on Tuesday!" (There was no school on Monday.)

We had a small celebration to mark the day. I read Sheree Fitch's Sleeping Dragons All Around to the kids, using my best dragon voices, of course. They laughed and really got into it. And just before I surprised them with the cupcakes I had baked for them, they had a surprise for me.

With their teacher's help, my students had made me a book. One of the students presented it to me, whispering in her lilting voice, "Here you go, Miss Greer." The corners of my eyes stung with tears as I read the poem on the first page:

"We'll Remember You"
by Joanna Fuchs

Thank you, teacher, for helping us
To learn what we need to know.
We'll all remember you 
No matter where you go. 

Thank you, teacher, for being 
So nice and kind and good. 
We like you so much, teacher,
We'd have you stay here if you could. 

Each child had completed a page that read, "Miss Greer is a STAR because..." Reasons ranged from "she helped me with math" to "she always gave me the pizza with crusts." (One of the little boys loved pizza crust so I made sure to give him the corner pieces on Pizza Day each week.) I was impressed with how much effort they had put into these pages. Complete sentences, neat printing, and pictures with lots of detail and colour. This book is something I will always treasure, and I have no doubt that I'll be able to remember who my students were when I flip through their pages. So much of their personalities show in their work.

I didn't want to say goodbye to my students or the teachers, but I did. With cupcakes, books, hugs, smiles, and a few tears, I said goodbye to grade 2. But I promised I'd visit. And I will, because how could I not?

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On another note, I'm back from Vermont! I apologize for not posting the past couple of days, but it was nice to be away and not thinking about my "online world." A post about the trip will be coming soon!