One Last Bout Of School Year Sentiment

Not gonna lie, I spend all year looking forward to the magical last day of school, when the insanity takes a break, and summer begins. That should come as no surprise!

But here's the thing. Underneath my thick layers of snark, awkwardness, and whimsical nonsense, I'm also a sentimental sap. And ending the school year is always tough. Goodbyes are tough. I'm horrifically bad at them.

Goodbyes to students are tough, especially the 8th graders. Laugh and roll your eyes if you must, but you have to understand, I teach many of them for up to three years in a row. I meet them as 11 year old children, stick with them through the crazy hormonal storms, and then say goodbye to 14 year olds who are actually bordering on maturity. By then, magic happens when I look at the kids, and I can simultaneously see shadows of the adults they're becoming, and of the lil' kids they once were. I miss the latter, and hope to someday meet the former. But after all that we go through together in three years, they have a pretty huge place in my heart!

The kids actually aren't who I'm thinking about today though.

It's also hard to say goodbye to the adults. I happen to work at the best middle school in the west--possibly the world--and it's not coincidentally staffed by the best professionals you could ever want to work with. Ending the school year means saying goodbye to those who are retiring or moving on to other jobs. Of course, nothing will ever be as bad as the years after the economy crashed, when teachers were being moved against their will, and nobody had any control over where they ended up. At least now people generally only leave when they choose to. But that only makes it marginally easier!

I'm pretty anti-change in general. I like my routines. I like things to stay comfortable. I like my people to be right where I expect them to be. Always.

And I don't like losing people who are such talented, kind, integral parts of our school community. So many times over the last few days, I've thought "How will we ever survive without _____?"

But I think that every year, and this year I tried not to say it out loud. Because you know what I've learned? We will survive. And we'll continue to thrive. That's part of how the much-talked-about "Whitford Way" works.

In nine years at Whitford, especially these nine years, I've seen a lot of incredible people come and go. The magical part, though, is watching their ripples. A person's influence doesn't stop when they leave Whitford. The good they've done keeps working its way around, evolving into new shapes and forms, but maintaining its flavor. Sometimes people leave a very tangible mark, where you can point to specific objects, practices, or traditions, and you know who did that. Usually it's a less tangible legacy.

Speaking for myself, I know that I carry many pieces of other teachers with me. Sometimes it's even mildly against my will: "If So-And-So were here, they would do such-and-such. But they're not here, and it should still be done, so I guess I'll do it..." Most of the time it's with a much better attitude though, I promise! "This person always acts this way, and I want to be like that too..."

As a new teacher, it was easy to name the qualities I wanted to have as a teacher. For example, "I want to have high expectations for all students." Very easy to say! But what does that actually mean in the trenches of a classroom? I can read lots of articles about high expectations, and maybe they help a little. But nothing helps as much as being around teachers who consistently model successful ways to get students meeting high expectations. In my head right now, there's a long list of Whitford names, past and present, and specific things I've learned from each, that help me keep the expectations high in my own classroom.

I try to pass those things along to others, both students and teachers, because the Whitford Way works in ripples. Some of the most valuable advice I've received can be traced to teachers I've never even met, so I try to do my part to keep passing it forward.

A few months ago, I randomly came across a gathering of the Whitford retiree group. Some I knew as friends; others I mostly knew from legend. But there was something comforting and circle-of-lifey about that glimpse of what I hope my future looks like, still a part of this special family.

I've always felt lucky to be part of this community, experiencing the Whitford Way magic. And I think I'm starting to finally believe the magic doesn't have an expiration date.