It’s the second to last day of school here at TJMS and the last day we’ll see two of our classes. It’s been two years since we’ve had a real last day of school, and though it has some of the trappings of the end of a school year, we have one foot stuck in a world still crawling back from a pandemic.
We gathered at the bus loop yesterday with blue and gold pom poms in hand to cheer and wave goodbye to our Tuesday/Wednesday in-person students. A scant trickling of students walked past us, smiling and waving, to board nearly empty buses. The bus drivers honked as we waved our poms and smiled through our masks.
A handful of teachers are retiring this year, and we gathered on Teams for a virtual celebration of their time here at TJ. After gathering photos and video tributes over the past month, one of our librarians stitched them together into one video. We watched and commented together, as hearts and smiley emojis floated up the screen. I was skeptical of being able to send them off properly this way, but it was heartfelt and even drew a few tears.
We have our end-of-year staff party at a park this afternoon, and we’ll be grilling hot dogs and burgers. I think this will be a welcome nudge back to normalcy.
I’m missing International Game Day, the student vs. teacher basketball game, and our Camp Jefferson end-of-year fun day. Yes, these things take work to plan and can be a sweaty mess, but they signal the start of a well-earned summer break for all of us. Teachers jump in with the kids and let a little more of their non-teacher personas peek through, and students gleefully grab hold of summer with both hands.
I’ve managed to get a majority of kids at home to turn on their cameras for a final farewell. A few holdouts just couldn’t bring themselves to do it, and I reminded them that they won’t be able to hold a circle with their initials in front of their faces next year. Then I wondered if any of their parents have selected virtual schooling for next year -please, no.
These last few days are somewhat disorienting. I’m not excited about saying goodbye to this group of students because I don’t feel like we ever really, truly got started. This has all been a surreal prelude to digging in and getting into the muck of middle school and all its messy glory.
Next year.
My Corner of the Village 