Just as I thought, this week has been every bit of roller coastery
as anticipated – and then some. I have
been completely overwhelmed by the thoughtfulness and sincerity shown to me at
my schools in my final week of teaching.
Every evening when I get home from work, I unload my backpack
with hastily written notes and pieces of origami that have been given to me by
students. I look through my cell phone
and categorize photos and selfies taken with students under the album “Farewells.” At 7:30 PM, I write down reminders in my Gratitude!
app about my day, so I don’t forget in the upcoming weeks and months when I
settle into a new routine back in the U.S. what these days were like.
Monday, July 7th:
- Taught my last lesson at “M” yochien to some super-sweet kids! :)
- The BOE surprised me with a “thank you” and going-away gift: My very first yukata! I can’t wait to wear it! :D
- Yay! The Tanabata festival wasn’t canceled for rain! Plus, got to see a bunch of students.
Tuesday, July 8th:
- Said goodbye to a great group of fifth and sixth graders at “O” elementary. Class 6-2 even surprised me with a party!
- Received the first email from my successor. Seems like a sweet girl and excited to get here soon. :)
Wednesday, July 9th:
- Today was rough, but I'm glad I was able to properly say goodbye to the “T” kids.
Thursday, July 10th:
- Got to teach at least one sixth grade class at “M” elementary before keihou was called. :-/
- Thankfully, today’s typhoon hasn’t been as strong as initially feared.
Friday, July 11th:
- Said goodbye to a great bunch of fifth graders at “KA” elementary – I just wish I’d been with them longer! :-/
- “KA” teachers are awesome. Sentimental, but awesome.
And this really doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of
all of the things I’ve been grateful for this week. The notes and photos that have been
particularly special to me are the ones from students that I thought HATED
English the most – the ones where getting them to participate in class is like
pulling teeth from a crocodile. A gaggle
of usually distant sixth graders at “O” elementary presented me with a hand-made
poster, and one of the girls had even gotten me a keychain while on their
school trip to USJ. At “M” elementary,
one of my most disruptive students flagged me in the hallway, just to give me a
drawing of Spider Man before running away again. And I’ve been getting requests for signatures
on everything from textbooks to pencil cases.
Needless to say, it’s been overwhelming.
I try to do my job to the best of my abilities, but
sometimes I can’t help but wonder whether or not I actually make a difference
in my students’ English abilities. It’s
tough to gauge a class when you’ve got 34 blank faces staring back at you, and
you feel more like a clown than a teacher.
And then they completely surprise with handwritten letters in English,
thanking me for the fun lessons.
Whodathunkit? And completely out
of left field, at “O” elementary, as I was leaving, one of the secretaries met
me at the genkan while I was putting
on my street shoes.
“Alliey Sensei, where in America will you go back to?”
“Back to California.”
“What will you do?”
“I will go back to university.”
“Oh, that’s nice! I hope you will study hard.”
“Thank you, I will!” :D
“My son and I will miss you.”
“Eh?”
“My son is a student of yours. He told
me he enjoy your class, and enjoyed English now. He will miss you.”
T^T
“I will miss you. Thank you for teaching my son.”
*CUE WATERWORKS*
In the two years I’ve known this woman, I had no idea her
son was one of my students. I know I may
not reach every student I teach – ‘cause Lord knows there has been a lot of
them these past three years – I’m grateful to know that I’ve at least done my
job well enough to inspire a few. It
doesn’t matter so much to me whether or not their pronunciation is perfect, or
if their vocabulary is at dictionary levels, but rather they are motivated to
try. And I can only hope that that’s
what I’ve done during my very short tenure as a teacher.
So I come home from work, read through their notes and
drawings, usually tear up at least a little bit – or laugh, depending on the
typos – and look up a ton of cat videos on Youtube to keep these feels at
bay. Because seriously, f*ck these
feels, give me more Maru and Lil Bub, please.
This honestly came at the best possible time this week.
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