A Bitter, Sweet Goodbye

Many people do not know that I teach a religious education class one night a week. This is something I have been doing now for seven years. This year I had a third grade class, which is unusual for me. Most other years I have had grades sixth or seventh grade classes. Having such a young class was very different for me. It took a lot of getting used in the early part of the year, but as time went on things began to come together. Today was the last day of class with them for the year, and I left with very mixed feelings about this past year. For the most part I am going to miss my class, but on the other hand I am happy it is over because they were a handful and I already know that I have a sixth grade class for next year. Having such young students taught me a great lesson in being very patient. I'm not always the most patient person, but working with them taught me that I had to be patient because they were still very young and trying the best they could. Some of my students were only on a kindergarten or first grade reading level so this made it difficult for them to complete some of the readings for class. Initially this was very frustrating for me. As time went on I made many of my lessons hands on using different activities and projects to teach them the material this really worked out well. So, overall I am sad to see them leave, but I am relieved that there is one less thing to do on top of work and school.