Where to begin...

     It has been a crazy 8 weeks with student teaching.  It has had its ups and its downs, but I am done with my first placement.  Today was bittersweet, knowing that I get to start middle school on Monday while knowing that I will not see my high school students again.  If you had asked me at the end of last week and the beginning of this week if I was sad to be leaving, my answer was probably a no.  As the week progressed, I realized that I really am going to miss my students.  They have caused me on multiple occassions to want to pull my hair out.  Despite all the hassle they have given me, they are great kids.  I was pretty much convinced that a good majority of the students I taught didn't like me for whatever reason.  They were rude and disrespectful.  They kept asking when their teacher was coming back to teach them and why I had to be there with them.  I was almost beginning to ask myself if teaching was worth it.  But this week when we announced that today was going to be my last day, many of them had looks on their faces that told me their dogs had just died or something.
     Reality hit me.  Kids are kids and you cannot always take what they have to say as complete truth.  Maybe they were just trying to put up a front and not let me in.  I had several good conversations with different students in the past couple of days.  Many of them are still super concerned about my sprained ankle and they keep giving me advice about how to get better or lecture me if they think I am doing something to make it worse.  They really do care about me, because I cared about them and their lives.  One student asked me if I was sure that I wanted to be a teacher after having his class.  He was telling me how mean they were to me, but he really liked me.  Today instead of asking why I had to be their teacher, they were asking why I had to leave them and asking who would stay after school to help them with their work.
     I think that I learned that you never know what impact you are making.  Even if you are frustrated and don't know what else to do, it is probably worth it even if one kid is impacted.  I love these kids and I want to see them do well.  I just hope that all of me that I poured into their lives will produce hope and perserverence when things get tough for them.  My last day was filled with lots of memories and laughs and I will not forget it.