Her Saying Goodbye

Tomorrow is the last day of school with my students. I am happy that the 5:00 a.m. alarm is ending and the hectic to-do lists are going to be over, but I am going to miss my students so much. My heart hurts thinking about them leaving and me not seeing them every day. 

I am one of "those teachers" who gets attached to my students each year, but this year was worse. Not worse in a bad way, worse in a good way. My students this year are amazing students - they try hard...bust their butts each day, they focus on their assignments, and they are polite and respectful (most of the time anyway). More than that though, my students this year are amazing young people. They are kindhearted, sweet, compassionate, and fun. They have great senses of humor and have kept me laughing all year. I don't know what I will do without them moving forward. Thinking about them leaving makes me cry, even now and they aren't gone yet.

I wanted to plan some special send-offs for them so that they could see how much they meant to me. In addition to the grade level awards ceremony, I planned some things to do in my classroom with just me and them. This is what I am doing tomorrow. I hope, through these things, they will see just how much I value them as people and appreciate their work as students. 

First, each student will get an individualized award. I thought about each student and what I love about him/her or what I am going to remember most about him/her. I typed this onto a certificate and I printed each on the color printer at work. I used card stock to make them more durable.

This is the template I used. Click this link to download the certificate.

I opened it in Microsoft Word, deleted the Kindergarten Diploma and [Child's Name] and then took a screenshot of it. I then opened PowerPoint and added the photo to a blank slide and sized it to fit. I added some blue WordArt for the award title and a fun font for the student's name. I then duplicated the slide and made the first award. I duplicated again and made the second award. The file has one award for each student. This way I could load the card stock into the printer and hit print once. My doctored, PowerPoint version can be found here.

The awards I am giving out tomorrow are:
110% Award 
Always Smiling Award
Amazing Person In & Out Award
Best Friend Award 
Biggest Heart Award
Brightest Smile Award 
Civics Buff Award
Giggly & Silent Award
Goofy & Giggly Girl Award
Happy Dwarf Award
Helping Hand Award
"I Want to Win Once!" Award (for my students who like to power struggle with me)
Out of My Shell Award
Participator Award
Ray of Sunshine Award
Shy & Silent Award 
Sleepy & Silent Award
Sleepy Smartie Award
Smarty Pants Award
Smarty & Silent Award
Smiley Award
Smiley & Silent Award 
Stick to It Award
Studious & Silent Award 
Sugary Sweet Award
Super Helper/Participator/Chatty Cathy Award
Sweet & Silent Award
Sweetest Smile Award
Sweetheart Award
Sweetie Pie Award 
Wonderful Worker Award


I will also  show the students an iMovie that I made for them using the song Gone, Gone, Gone by Phillip Phillips. I heard this song a few months ago and thought it would be perfect for the last day of school because it is all about being there for someone and never leaving them. I have made other videos for them this year (as part of their state test prep), so this will not be new to them. I modify the lyrics and let the artist sing, because I cannot carry a tune in a bucket. The modified lyrics play on the screen with some special messages from me to the students as the song plays.


It will be a good day tomorrow because it is the last day of school. But it will be a sad day as I say goodbye to all my amazing students. I hope they know, through all the things I have planned, how much I love each and every one of them and how much they are going to be missed. Now I just have to find the waterproof mascara. 


How did you say goodbye to your classes this year?


Happy Summer Vacation,