Last week was my final week of teaching for the 2010-2011 school year. For most of us there is a collective feeling of excitement for the summer days ahead. For me, it was an emotional week.
As many of you may know my husband’s job has us moving to Palm Springs, California for the next 2-3 years. As excited as I am that we will be together as a family and have this life experience I feel that I am leaving behind something that makes me me.
I have been blessed with an amazing profession where I get to be creative and & guide students into finding who they are. Where I observe little "ahas" everyday from the shift of transferring information from the working into the permanent memory. Where I guide them in un-taping a potential that they never knew existed. Where I get to give boosts of encouragement to a student that may not get it from anywhere else.
I cannot help but continue to think of my students. It's the inner mom in me. Or I guess you can also say it's the teacher in me. Will someone be there to listen to a student's ramblings that just want to be heard? Will someone be willing chip away layers of a facade from a student written off as unreachable? Will someone take the time to sit next to the student that sits alone and is struggling to find of sense of belonging?
Teaching is so much more than covering curriculum. It is a human endeavor where we model and guide how to be a good person. If my students learned from me even 1/10 of what I learned about myself I would consider that an accomplishment.
For my students, even though you may never read this, Mrs. Denne, "Denne", Denzanator, Denny-Benny, Den-Den, Ms. Gullikson, "G" (and I'm sure other names that I would rather not know) is so proud of you and the person are evolving into.
Posted below are some artworks done by students at DMS during the 2010-2011 school year.
Love it Meg!
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