Friday was the day I said goodbye to my students. It was the first group of people that I am going to say goodbye to before I relocate to Costa Rica. I don't think I was really prepared for the day or what exactly it would all look like, I just knew that I wanted it to be special and say "good good-byes" as I had been wisely advised. For the past few weeks we had been talking about how we were going to have a party on the last day of school to celebrate Christmas and say goodbye to Miss Frantz. The notes had been written to the parents, the snacks and paper goods had been purchased, the individualized Christmas cards to students had been filled out. I had already been receiving sweet notes from my first graders and other students at the school that week, telling me that they were going to miss me.
Friday came and I got there early because I had yard duty. Side note, it was by far one of the coldest mornings we've had this December, so I was decked out in my snowboarding jacket, fluffy boots, mittens, etc. My janitor came in to bring some snacks he had bought for his son, who is one of my students. He gave me a hug and told me how he was going to miss joking around with me and how he was so glad his son had me as his teacher and I just lost it. I was not planning on crying with the first person I talked to on Friday morning, but there it was. Moving on to breakfast...at my school, every morning the teachers go into the cafeteria to pick up the students from breakfast while the our principal is giving announcements. My good intentions were to take the microphone and share some heartfelt words with the student body about how I was going to miss them. My principal beat me to it and had them all say "Costa Rica" in unison and clap for me, and I just couldn't do it. Second round of tears.
Once we were inside our classroom, I was able to pull myself together and we had a good morning of me opening my presents from the students and reading the sweet notes they gave me, and reading two of my favorite Christmas books to them. The morning passed quickly with different activities and the ever important task of cleaning out their desks. When we went out to recess, I was bombarded by 2nd-5th grade students, mostly girls, who came up to me in little groups and gave hugs and more notes. That was really special to me because between my classroom students, after school Enrichment students, and intervention groups I run, I know almost every student at Malaga School. Having a chance to say goodbye to a lot of those students individually was something I wasn't sure I was going to be able to do and was pleased it worked itself out.
Our class "party" consisted of more bags of chips, Christmas cookies, juice boxes, and Little Ceasar's Pizza than four classrooms should have consummed. We eventually packed up, sent each student home with a bag bulging with snacks, and made a circle outside. Again, not really knowing what to say exactly, I tearfully told them that I was really going to miss them and that I was sorry I wasn't going to be their teacher after Christmas. I told them I was really glad that they had a wonderful new teacher coming and that I wanted them all to keep working hard. I also told them that I loved them and wanted to make sure they wrote to me as a class and I would write to them. Then I sat down in a chair and gave them each a hug and affirmation individually. It was really sweet, special and hard to do. Then, before we knew it, they all had found their way to their parents or onto the bus and that was that.
We had a staff "off to new adventures" party for me at Red Robin after the students were gone and I had cleaned up the feast in my classroom. I was given a travel coffee mug with an insert with all of my students' pictures on it as well as a calendar with lots of pictures of my time spent at Malaga. I was also given a pair of Tom's shoes that say "carpe diem" all over them. Quite appropriate for this chapter of life. My co-workers and I didn't officially say goodbye yet because we are planning on a beach weekend before I leave, so that was REALLY nice to know I didn't need to shed any tears over them yet. :)
