Schools out for summer...

It's beginning to sink in that school for the year is officially over. It's been a very fast year and the transition's been fast and furious. I've done quite a bit this year and I think I've grown as a teacher. I am a whole lot less temperamental and a whole lot more patient. I have learned patience and more understanding and my administration work hasn't exactly swamped me as such. (OK, it has but not as badly as it used to...)

This year marked the first of my form classes and it's been both fulfilling and heartbreaking at the same time. I've seen 8 kids come and go with another 5 leaving the fold soon. And of the 5 leaving now, I think that the one I'll miss the most is a girl named Angela.

She came into my class after the first 3 months and I didn't have a very distinct impression of her other than the fact that she was quite vocal about things. It didn't help that she didn't have a great command of English and she took quite a (overly)passionate stand on things. But as the year progressed, I realised that despite the fact that she couldn't articulate her thoughts well, she had a certain maturity that was lacking in many of my other students. (Some even from "better" classes) After a rather bitter year, the term exams and the fallout thereof being a large contributer to said bitterness, she's finally decided that JC's not the path she has to take.

I hate endings. It always hurts when chapters close and this year is no different. Angela's a representative of that loss and I guess that the first time in teaching for me that the first few days of the holidays is a time for me to grieve. It's the sad fact of a teachers life. Students will come and go and all the while, we stay on. I guess that this year, Angela's a representative of that loss for me.

And I can't think of a nice way to end this post...so I'll leave the eulogy to the immortal words of Alice Cooper:

"No more pencils
No more books
No more teacher's dirty looks
Out for summer
Out 'til fall
We might not go back at all

School's out forever
School's out for summer
School's out with fever
School's out completely"