Last day

lastday

It’s the last day of school. In a few hours, the busses will pull out of the parking lot for the last time and take the kids home for the summer.  They are excited and the teachers are, too. But, the last day of school, or of anything, is always the hardest.

It has been a good year and I’m sad to see the group move on – they are all great kids and have done fabulous job in the classroom. They will be great eighth graders. The day is only a partial day and it will be part fun and frenzy. The kids have their yearbooks and they will be asking other kids to sign and leave a note. Many kids will approach me and ask me to sign their yearbooks and I always leave a note and a message. This year’s note will be asking them to make their summer worthwhile and to use all of their 77 days to their fullest. I hope they do, the days go quickly, much quicker than a day in school.  

After the kids are gone, I’ll make my final adjustments to grades – a couple of kids will realize they have something that needed to get turned and didn’t and they will hand it to me and I’ll make a final adjustment before grades are closed and report cards are ready to run. Then, I’ll pack up classroom and move to next year’s rooms.

This is when time moves to warp speed and it will fly by. I’ll make a pile of stuff I want to bring home and work on over the summer, but what really happens is I look at it a couple of times and work on it when August comes and the realization that school is about to begin again and panic has set in. I’ll say my goodbyes to the staff and then I’ll get in the car and head home. W’s last final is today, he is done. O has one more day and summer vacation will set in officially in our home Thursday afternoon. B will be ready for school to start by the middle of next week.

I have my list started, sort of: reading, writing, thinking, cleaning, organizing, gardening, and fun – in no particular order. In the meantime, I need to jump up, jump in, and seize the day. Today is gonna be a great day, I know it, I can feel it. Making the Days Count, one day at a time, especially on last days.

What do you remember about the last day of school, was it fun?

6 thoughts on “Last day

    1. Thank you for your kind words about our profession – many of us do work hard and put our all into teaching. As for the last day, the day does go quickly. It was only a partial day – perfect for final goodbyes. As the buses pulled out I could see a few kids with tears who were not sure what was next. For some of our students school is their only real social context and sadly, their only NORMAL place. I was always excited because it meant I could read, play, and have fun in the neighborhood. It was awesome.

  1. One of my memories was turning back into the teacher the text books. I remember the books stacked on the side of the room in neat piles. All the books had hand written numbers on the side of the pages in black bold marker. With the books piled in numerical order it was easy to see a missing book.

    1. I remember that, too. I also remember how excited I was school was over. I was packing up my room yesterday after the kids were gone and got to the encyclopedias and I could see they don’;t appreciate order like I do. Encyclopedia = old school Google. It was a good day. Thanks for stopping by and looking forward to the lake, soon.

  2. Since there is no particular order of your list of things to do during the summer…I vote for Fun to be first. I never attended the Last Day of School. I went to Public School in San Francisco and some times things would get a little stupid – kids fighting, kids running down the hallways cutting girls long hair, kids pushing other kids down the stairs – stupid things! I do attend the last day of school, now, in my college days – no choice – that’s when we have our Final!
    Have a GREAT summer, Clayton…do that pile of stuff now then it won’t sit in the back of your mind (thinking, part of your list) all summer 🙂

    1. FUN, I like it…. O has one day of school left and W is done, completely done. B gardened and I cooked dinner and we enjoyed ribs, baked beans, bleu cheese coleslaw and asparagus on the deck – it was a bit chilly but we endured. Today is the first day….

Leave a Reply to Tonette HashimotoCancel reply