The Beginning of the End

This is my last week of teaching here in the Kingdom of Thailand, and today I finished teaching my first of nine classes. The first to go was one of my M.1 classes (grade 7 in the U.S.), and while I suspected it would be hard to say goodbye to a couple of the students in the class who I really like, I didn't think that it would actually be hard to say goodbye to the entire class. They might have driven me nuts, and I might have wanted to throw them out a window a time or two, but they were all part of my experience here and it made me realize that I might have helped these little kids out more than I thought. Many of them came up to me telling me that they'd miss me, and that they wish I could come back and teach again. One student in particular, named Tew, wrote me a really nice letter in my notebook:

Hello Teacher,

I will miss u. You was a great teacher. I hope you will come back to this class again. Have a good time. I will be a great teacher in the future.

Good Luck,

Tew

I mean, how can you read that and not feel good? A smile full of genuine happiness came over my face when I read that. The rest of the class was spent taking funny pictures, talking, and it just wouldn't be a day in the classroom without the occasional roughhousing.

This just about sums it all up

Usually at the end of every class, the students all stand up and say "Thank you teacher, goodbye. See you next time." But as I said goodbye to the class for the last time, they all stood up and said, "Thank you teacher, goodbye." It was then that it really hit me. This is the end of an experience that helped me change and helped me grow and I won't ever forget it.