Whoda Thunk It?

That's right. I'm doing a double post today, but I sincerely believe this post is worthy. Today was the last day before New Years break and I stepped into my last class of the day only to discover that only 2 students out of 40 had shown up. Instead of leaving the class and going home, I decided to stay and talk to the students who were there. I had my laptop with me so I decided to show them pictures of places I have traveled to, and pictures of my friends and family. With about 20 minutes left in class, the 2 students just started laughing and looking behind me. I turn around and the entire rest of the class is standing there with a big sign that said "Happy New Year Teacher!!!" and then they started to sing a happy new year song to the tune of happy birthday. I was in total shock and couldn't believe that my students did this for me. They all started laughing and smiling, and I too had the biggest smile on my face, and I couldn't even control it. For the first time since I have been here teaching, I really felt like appreciated and that I had some sort of connection with my students. And for that brief moment, I had forgotten about all the troubles I had been through in the past with them and just focussed on the now. And the now was making me very, very happy. I spent the remainder of the class just casually talking with my students and showing them more pictures from home and they all seemed very interested, and I was just so happy that I didn't have to yell or be mean. I felt like I was just being myself in the classroom for the first time ever and I was enjoying the hell out of it. I left the class on a positive note, the year had ended well for me in school and gave me hope that these next 2 months are going to really be something special if I want them to be. And I really do want them to be. I know its a cliche, but I really think I learned a valuable lesson today... don't judge people too early, sometimes they will surprise you.