Update: I am done

I cannot believe how quickly student teaching began and ended, but as of last Friday I am done. It was really hard leaving my second graders who I have grown to love very deeply, but I told them that moving on is part of growing up for them and for me. I cried because it is so sad to leave this amazing group of children, half the students cried to.
It was important that they were given an opportunity to write thank you notes to me, because we found that gave them the chance to process what was going to happen when I was gone. One girl in particular needed that writing opportunity to express that she was sad and did not want this to happen.
I told the class that I will be back to say hello next semester, and anytime Kathy needs to be out for the day I will come to take care of them, and anytime another teacher in the building calls me to sub I will walk down to their room and peek in to say hello.
Finding a teacher job at this time of the year is not out of the question, but I am not up for the uncertainty right now. Instead I have decided to spend the rest of the school year dividing my time between nanny work with a few local families, and substitute teaching. In the mean time I will continue preparing myself for the job that I pray I will find at the start of the 2011-2012 school year.