I found it really difficult to put packaging tape over the last box today as I packed up my classroom. What I thought would be a big relief was mixed with a lot of sad emotions. I remembered, putting away some of my student's things, that they saw my classroom as a place they could run away from reality for a little while. It was a place they felt at home, and many of them would often come for that simple fact. While it was always a place that pushed them to go beyond their expectations, I also did my best to make it somewhere that understood where they came from. These kids quickly went from students to family in my eyes.
I believed, down to my core, and still believe, that these kids will go far. I know, some of them will not, but I hold on to that perspective of them which sees the best they have to offer this crazy world.
Packing up letters, thank you notes, pictures, and drawings, I was reminded how important it was to invest in these kids outside of classroom hours. I did things for them which left many of them silent. I stayed late hearing them talk about life, work, love, and their plans after high school. I stayed to watch them grow. And I spent time, money, and heart growing them.
I remembered, as I put away the last board game, how game nights quickly became family nights, and how it was really about how we could spend just a little more time together. They saw a real person behind their teacher, and I saw a real heart behind the student.
I'm gonna miss these kids, because not only were they my first set of kids, they showed me what real teaching is all about... love.
At the end of the day, when it's all said and done, if "ya ain't got love, nigga, you aint got nothin'." (':
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