Teaching is a satisfying vocation

As my time with my co-op classes comes to a close, I am feeling a little sentimental about the time I have spent with these kids.  Unlike the past few years, I am moving on to create my own co-op in the fall and will not be coming back to my current co-op where I have taught the same group of kids for the past three years.  I started here when Dakota had barely turned four and I taught a double period of preK/K that gave me the chance to work with the kids from 9:30 to noon.  They were 2 to 5 years old and just as sweet and open as then could be.  I think I started with 6, but ended up with about 12.  We did theme based activities and had a snack together and playtime outdoors whenever possible.  Today, as I taught my Around the World class, some of those very same children looked back at me, now "big kids" at 6 to 8 years old.  I have always considered them "my" kids and I have made it my business to know them well, to love them and to encourage them to do their best.  Now they write, read and easily remember to raise their hands.  They are really good at mapping now and know their continents and countries and it's so rewarding to know that they have this knowledge because of me.  They are always respectful in my class and well behaved...I demand it and they live up to the demand.  They are sweet, hornery, hysterically funny and sometimes tearful and incredibly needy.  I have given them high fives, stern looks and many, many hugs.  I have seen them smile at me with teeny tiny baby teeth long ago and now with gaps and holes where their big teeth are.  I helped them learn to write their letters and their names and now I expect them to write the names of continents on dividers and follow detailed mapping instructions without fail.  They are fabulous.  I love them....each and every one.  Each one of them has a story to tell and most of them trust me enough to share some of that story.  As I looked out at them today I felt an incredible amount of pride and a great deal of love.  Several of them will be coming with me to my new co-op in the fall, thankfully, but some of them...they are the ones that make my heart break a little.  I am going to lose them now.  They will go on in their co-op with other teachers and new friends and they will most likely forget me before too long.  I, however, will always hold each one of them in a very special place in my heart.  Now I know how it must feel for those school teachers who let those kids that they have spent 9 straight months with, five days a week go off to their next grade.  How it feels to say goodbye to children who will move on so quickly you will only be a faint memory by this time next year.  So to my longtime young friends whom I will leave in a few weeks..Siobhan, Eric, Joseph, Liana., Kyran....I am so very proud of you and it has been my pleasure to teach you each week and to watch you grow.  Thank you for the glimpses into your young souls.  You are very, very special children and Ms. Cindy has been a very, very lucky teacher to have known you and loved you for the last few years.