Skip to main content

Endings & Beginnings

Last night we had our farewell dinner at Terra Nova Park. Twenty years later and this event remains to be very difficult. Emotionally I mean. And how can it not be? For ten months I have seen these children for 12 hours per week- not much on the grand scale but it does translate to lots of time to develop our relationships. And, although families promise to come back and visit, we all know and understand it will never be the same.

Yesterday morning, very early, I went for a walk to try to gather my thoughts on the year past. As I walked along the paths, I had flashes of moments that the class shared. The moments are plentiful; rich in sound, colour, and emotion. These moments will live with me for a long time. They will not all be weighted equally, some will fade, some will remain more prominent. Some will be dormant for a time and then suddenly burst into the forefront. Memories are odd like that. But the creation of these memories is really and truly what I feel so privileged to be a part of.

To become part of the lives of these intelligent, engaging, curious, clever, funny and creative young children is a gift. To listen to their stories, to watch them experiment, to hold them when they are sad, to laugh with them when something is funny, to offer them new experiences, to present new ways of looking at things, to listen to them work through conflict, to observe their play, to receive and give hugs, to ask them questions, to offer them answers, to open doors for each other, to help them connect to other people, to help them be patient, to allow them to teach me; these are but a few of the reasons why teaching is the very best job; for me at least.

I am forever grateful to our parents for inviting me into their lives- the life of both their preschooler and their family- this can never be disconnected and schools that do not realize and cherish this truth need to rethink education.

So, yes, ending are hard. And although a cliche, endings also mean new beginnings. For my students, they will begin a new part of their lives as they head into elementary school. New relationships will be formed, new questions will arise and new ways of thinking will develop.  For me, new relationships will be formed, new questions will arise and new ways of thinking will develop. Yes, these are exactly the same. And, therein lies the beauty.

It has truly been a wonderful year. I am blessed.

Until September...

Emily

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mosaic Garden Stones

Today our children had an amazing opportunity to work with Glen Anderson, a local artist specializing in mosaics. You can see his work at http://www.mosaicplanet.net . I met Glen last year at Urban Weavers Studio in Strathcona. I asked him many, many questions about mosaics, all of which he patiently answered with expertise. I was gearing up for an art project in our preschool class so I really wanted to get any pointers I could from him. The plan was to have our students make mosaic tiles to place along our fence at the garden plot at Terra Nova Farm. They worked out very well, thanks to Glen's great advice and it was a beautiful moment when child and parent hung the stones at the farm on our last day of school. It was a moment of great pride for all of us. The garden that they cared for with their own hands- tended to its needs in sunshine and in rain. They will always remain part of that space, that land and their stone will remind them of this connection. Even though they turne...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Love for Cabbage

Another day of working with cabbage-our prized cabbage that I babied throughout the summer. The cabbage that I saved from the demise of cabbage worms, watered, and surrounded with copper to scare away slugs. So, yes, babied. After all that care and love I was hoping the children would enjoy working with this gorgeous vegetable and like the taste of it. The coleslaw was a hit last week but would cooked cabbage get the same positive response? We assembled our ingredients for cabbage rolls and showed all the children. They smelled all the spices that were in the recipe and many of them loved the smell of the fresh garlic! They took great pride in recognizing onion, salt, pepper, tomato sauce and ground beef. I wanted to introduce them to another herb so we passed around marjoram, which many agreed smelled sweet. We pre-cooked the meat just so the children could work with the food without any cause for concern. The smell of the onions and meat simmering sparked the interest of many ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Volunteering at Richmond Food Bank

Today was our last day volunteering at the Richmond Food Bank. I am so grateful we had this opportunity– it has been an extraordinary experience for all of us. I, myself, have been very lucky to work in a community where I have seen dedicated volunteers working countless hours for people and projects they believe in. In my own community centre, the staff devote extra hours for many events, all to help strengthen our community. From these experiences grew a desire within me to try to share this with our children. How can we make them generous with their time and energy for the good of others? How can we teach them to be giving people– people that think of others? Are they too young for these concepts? In my need to answer these questions, I sought to find a volunteer opportunity for them. I thought about many different ideas but the food bank always came out ahead. I was lucky enough to come across an open-minded and risk-taking individual– let's face it, preschoolers gett...
Post a Comment
Read more