Graduation: Last Day of School (work)

Today was my last day of school. In general, the last few weeks have been pretty fun at school. I have gotten to do some presentations on psychology (specifically, eating disorders) and lead English grammar review exercises with the kids. It was really great being able to teach about something I am passionate about and studied (psychology) -- and to try and influences my students' perspectives on mental health. We talked about misconceptions about mental health in general, the basics of anorexia, bulimia and binge eating disorder, and what to do if you may know someone with an eating disorder. At the end of school, I had a girl's mom come up to me and tell me that her daughter loved what I had been teaching in class, and now wanted to be a psychologist. That was so touching and meant to much to me. This same daughter ended up telling me the same thing on the last day of school, so I was even more gratified that she told me in person!

For the English review lessons, I came up with alternative ways to learn/review the rules they already (or should haha) know. My kids loved them. One of them even dubbed them "modern" LOL. Honestly, my experience from Summerbridge gave me the idea of trying to find something outside of the normal textbook to do. At Summerbridge, my mentor Sheena was always challenging me to come up with different ways to teach and that was really hard for me. I'm so glad I got that experience and was able to apply it here, and that my students ended up loving the change in activity, especially since summer was coming and I could tell they were losing focus.

For the last few days the kids have had field trips and fun game days. My coworkers and I have run a couple games for them. The game I overlooked was one where they had to toss squishy frog toys towards this target on the ground with rings and each ring had a different amount of points. Because we were running the games, I didn't get to see my 6th graders too much leading up to graduation, which I was quite bummed about. However, one of my teachers, Ana, was able to recover that mood as she told me that the students got their PET results back and everyone had passed besides 2 students! I was SO happy to hear that! I couldn't stop smiling! Ana and Carlos credit me with their success, as ALL of the children's speaking component of the score was the highest out of all 4 categories (reading, writing, listening and speaking). I am so flattered that they think so -- I can only hope that they are right and I did help, but more than anything I'm so proud of my students! Even the two that didn't pass, they passed the speaking portion of the exam! Ana told her students about that and they wrote "Thanks Kim" on the board for me. So sweet. I'm going to miss them so much!!

Also, some of my students gave me gifts at the end of the year. For example, the flower above. I LOVE MY STUDENTS SO MUCH! I even had one girl, Saray, invite me to her graduation party that evening. Which I did go to and I'm so glad I did. One of my other students, Otto, happened to be there too. Both of them speak excellent English, so I had a great time chatting with them and eating food that Saray's dad had prepared (he's a chef) and drinking non-alcoholic delicious apple juice (Saray specified it was non-alcoholic haha).

On the last day of school, my 6th graders graduated. It was so fun watching them dance and walk across the stage. I got LOTS of pictures with them and a lot of their parents thanked me for helping their kids. OF COURSE I LOVE THEM!! It was so surreal to me -- that I was most likely not going to see any of them again.

I also got a picture with my teachers finally! Above are Ana (middle) and Carlos (right). They thought of them as Spanish parents, always looking out for me and giving me advice. Ana especially became such a good friend to me too -- we always had such good chats and laughs. I'm going to miss them both so much. I learned so much from being in their classrooms and observing their different teaching styles.

While I am going to miss my teachers and my students a TON, I am still confident in my decision to return home to the USA. They were disappointed I was not returning, but also understanding that I really want figure out what I'm doing with my life and start on that. Also Carlos teased that he knew the real reason I was going home: "the boy", he said with a laugh. Definitely made the decision for myself, but I certainly will be glad to be closer to "the boy" as well LOL.