Saying Goodbye

Another school year down, and yet it somehow doesn't seem right to say goodbye.

The end of the school year is something that every teacher visualizes...repeatedly...throughout the year…

After that first exhausting week when you realize this group of students is going to need a different approach than last years, you remind yourself that by the end of the year, the room will operate like a well oiled machine. Later in the year when you feel like you are speed dating through 15 minute conferences to share your hopes and concerns about students with parents, you are sharing your vision of growth for a child by the end of the school year. When you hit mid-year and the days have little light, you remind yourself that there is a countdown calendar in the lounge and it is probably time to start referencing it. In the spring, when that shift happens and you start to think about saying goodbye to the students you have grown to love over the past 7 months, you begin to plan a special event or draft celebration cards to be shared in the final days together.

Saying goodbye at the end of the school year is both rewarding and gut wrenching for teachers. They have poured their energy into not only educating students with academic content, but also their growth as a human being. When remote learning was announced two months ago, teachers were hopeful and nervous about what the end of the school year might look like. Now, we are living it. It is not ideal. Saying goodbye is hard. Saying goodbye without hugs, knowing looks, secret handshakes, selfies or posed pictures, homemade cards, and handshakes with a diploma exchange is harder.

As the school year comes to a close for much of the country in May of 2020, we are learning a new way to say goodbye to our students. It will not be easy. There will be tears. There will be frustration and maybe even anger. As educators, we need to give ourselves grace in this time. Saying goodbye at the end of the school year is always hard. This year it will be even harder. Please remember it is okay to feel all the feelings. There are no “best practices” during this time of closing out the school year. There is only your best effort of closure as you say goodbye, and that is enough.