Two Hands and a Heart: Last Kindergarten Class

Some of our "transportation" themed projects

Friday, July 15th was my last day of teaching at the Shepherd's Field school. After a patience-testing morning class with the preschoolers :), I recomposed and got psyched back up to do Wendy/Grady/Stacey's class one more time with Melissa after lunch. I thought I was prepared, strong enough to handle Kindergarten later that afternoon with minimal tears and emotion, but I was dead wrong. As soon as those eight little people walked in the door, my heart just lost it. I tried to hide it as best I could, and fortunately I think the kids were too excited and involved with our class activities to notice much, but the sadness was ever-present. Not even the expectation of a field trip to the zoo with them on Monday (my last day in Ch1na) made me feel any better. Behind their loud voices singing "Five Little Monkeys" or "My G0d is So Great," mine blubbered and warbled along. Behind the smiles and enthusiasm I mustered up for them was a shaky girl who desperately wanted to run to her room in the Inn, hide her face in her pillow, and cry for the pain of leaving them.

But we made it. I made it. Our last class was deemed a "fun day", with our usual songs and general vocabulary review followed by a bookmark-making, sticker-peeling, play dough-squeezing frenzy of fun at the craft table. The kids loved it. I did sneak a little transportation review in there via car, airplane, and helicopter stickers, but other than that we just enjoyed all being together....laughing, creating, hugging. I soaked up every molecule of those eight precious faces, tucked deep inside me the happy sounds of their voices, memorized their mannerisms and little personality quirks for one last time, and tried to hang onto them as long as I could when we stopped to take pictures together. This class will always have a very special place in my heart and I can't wait to see what G0d will do in each one of my amazing, sweet, and fun students' lives. I missed you already then, guys, and I still do. Every single day.