Every New Beginning
As a lover of other people's words of wisdom, I often find quotes that I can relate to or connect to my daily life. I try to share special quotes that remind me of certain people, or provide comforting quotes to loved ones in need. Before I started my new teaching job back in November I searched and searched for the perfect quote to share with my students on our first day together. Once I found the wise words of Henry Ford, I knew these were the ones: "Coming together is a beginning, keeping together is progress, working together is success." This was perfect. We were just beginning mid-year, and simply by keeping together, the learning, teaching, and understanding was being progressed. My dedicated students that stuck it out for the remainder of the year and who worked well became successful.
As I sit here now and grade final essays, I suddenly realize that I have 5 days left with my students. It's fun to count down the days until summer vacation with the knowledge that my alarm clock won't be singing to me at 5am daily anymore, at least for a little while. It's enlightening to think that I can have some peace and perhaps some quiet back in my daily routine, and it's exciting even to get some fresh air and vitamin D between the hours of 7am and 4pm. But, suddenly I've become sad. Suddenly I remembered that I don't like change and tend to get rather emotional at each year's end. These students who entered high school as bold, little children are now leaving freshman year with a sense of pride. They are leaving, and although some will return right back to me next year, many are moving onward and upward, they are spreading their wings. Meeting and learning and loving these unique individuals became so routine, so enjoyable to me. Of course there were the challenges, the road blocks, the definite swerves and perhaps even a few wrong turns down the road we traveled together. But through it all we came together, we kept together, we worked together. I believe I learned even more than my students did, and I can spend my summer brainstorming ways to make next year's lessons even better and more adventurous.
I hope that if my students didn't enjoy English class or school in general that they were at least able to learn something about staying positive, about spreading their wings, and if they learned anything at all I hope they learned that every day may not be a good day, but there is something good in every day. Now, as I search for a summative quote and more wise words to share with my students on our last day together, the most obvious comes to mind, and it seems to connect wonderfully to our first day words of wisdom: "Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end." How perfectly fitting.
As I sit here now and grade final essays, I suddenly realize that I have 5 days left with my students. It's fun to count down the days until summer vacation with the knowledge that my alarm clock won't be singing to me at 5am daily anymore, at least for a little while. It's enlightening to think that I can have some peace and perhaps some quiet back in my daily routine, and it's exciting even to get some fresh air and vitamin D between the hours of 7am and 4pm. But, suddenly I've become sad. Suddenly I remembered that I don't like change and tend to get rather emotional at each year's end. These students who entered high school as bold, little children are now leaving freshman year with a sense of pride. They are leaving, and although some will return right back to me next year, many are moving onward and upward, they are spreading their wings. Meeting and learning and loving these unique individuals became so routine, so enjoyable to me. Of course there were the challenges, the road blocks, the definite swerves and perhaps even a few wrong turns down the road we traveled together. But through it all we came together, we kept together, we worked together. I believe I learned even more than my students did, and I can spend my summer brainstorming ways to make next year's lessons even better and more adventurous.
I hope that if my students didn't enjoy English class or school in general that they were at least able to learn something about staying positive, about spreading their wings, and if they learned anything at all I hope they learned that every day may not be a good day, but there is something good in every day. Now, as I search for a summative quote and more wise words to share with my students on our last day together, the most obvious comes to mind, and it seems to connect wonderfully to our first day words of wisdom: "Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end." How perfectly fitting.
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