Things That Will Be Different When I Am Done Teaching

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Abstract

ut what my last day as a teacher will look like. I have never been one to call a lot of attention to myself, and my guess is the end of my teaching career will be no different. I doubt I will make a big emotional goodbye speech to anyone, or even let any of the students know they are the last students I will ever have. When that last kid walks out of my last class, my teaching career will have concluded.I wonder how that will feel.After the last student leaves for the last time, there will be the obligatory staff in-service days that follow. Grades will have to be made out, materials will have to be boxed up and stored, and budget requests will be submitted. Meetings will be held about changes for the next school year. What possible reason would there be for me to attend them?I think about all the materials I have accumulated over the years. Should I leave them for my successor, or should I simply put them in the garbage and not look back? I think a lot of retiring teachers leave their “treasures” behind for the next person, but I have seen far too many new teachers throw out the things left behind by the person they are replacing. If anyone is going to throw out my life’s work, it is going to be me.In the future when I meet someone and they ask me what I do, what will I tell them? Will I tell them I am a retired teacher? Or will I just tell them I am retired and leave it at that? In all likelihood I will find some

Options

kind of job to keep myself occupied. Maybe I will just tell them I am a Walmart greeter and see what they say.<figure id="3b9f"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/0*-KZKdKUsnjALf9nD"><figcaption>Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@maximilian_simson?utm_source=medium&utm_medium=referral">Maximilian Simson</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com?utm_source=medium&utm_medium=referral">Unsplash</a></figcaption></figure>When school starts next year, will I feel like I am missing out on something? Will I feel a sense of relief that I no longer have to do that, or will I feel nostalgic and a little melancholy? Maybe I will feel a little of both.I follow educational issues in the news and on social media. I can tell you how many banned books there are in my state, and which districts banned them. I know which politicians support public education and which ones don’t. I wonder if, after this year, will I still continue to follow educational issues the way I do now, or will I let them fall by the wayside? My guess is that I will still keep one eye open for new developments in education, but with no longer having any skin in the game, it is likely that interest will be supplanted by other issues more pressing in my daily life.So today is the last day of my last summer vacation. I am going to eat lunch and take a nap. Tomorrow is the first day of my last year of teaching. Wish me luck.</article></body>

Changes are coming

Today is a special day for me. It is the last day of my last summer vacation.

Let me unpack that for you. For 12 years of elementary and high school, five years of college, and 36 years of teaching, summer for me has always been “summer vacation.” At the end of this coming school year, I will hang it up for good, and I am attempting to anticipate the changes that will come my way. Today is the last day of summer vacation because I return to school tomorrow for our first in-service day for the 2022–2023 school year.

Next summer it won’t be “summer vacation.” It will just be “summer.”

As next summer moves along, there will be no dread of the new school year fast approaching. I will not feel my heart sink into my stomach as I turn the calendar and note it is August 1st. I will not look on in horror as Target and Walmart put out their “Back to School” sales. Perhaps August will bring as much joy as June and July for the first time. Perhaps.

I have thought about what my last day as a teacher will look like. I have never been one to call a lot of attention to myself, and my guess is the end of my teaching career will be no different. I doubt I will make a big emotional goodbye speech to anyone, or even let any of the students know they are the last students I will ever have. When that last kid walks out of my last class, my teaching career will have concluded.

I wonder how that will feel.

After the last student leaves for the last time, there will be the obligatory staff in-service days that follow. Grades will have to be made out, materials will have to be boxed up and stored, and budget requests will be submitted. Meetings will be held about changes for the next school year. What possible reason would there be for me to attend them?

I think about all the materials I have accumulated over the years. Should I leave them for my successor, or should I simply put them in the garbage and not look back? I think a lot of retiring teachers leave their “treasures” behind for the next person, but I have seen far too many new teachers throw out the things left behind by the person they are replacing. If anyone is going to throw out my life’s work, it is going to be me.

In the future when I meet someone and they ask me what I do, what will I tell them? Will I tell them I am a retired teacher? Or will I just tell them I am retired and leave it at that? In all likelihood I will find some kind of job to keep myself occupied. Maybe I will just tell them I am a Walmart greeter and see what they say.

When school starts next year, will I feel like I am missing out on something? Will I feel a sense of relief that I no longer have to do that, or will I feel nostalgic and a little melancholy? Maybe I will feel a little of both.

I follow educational issues in the news and on social media. I can tell you how many banned books there are in my state, and which districts banned them. I know which politicians support public education and which ones don’t. I wonder if, after this year, will I still continue to follow educational issues the way I do now, or will I let them fall by the wayside? My guess is that I will still keep one eye open for new developments in education, but with no longer having any skin in the game, it is likely that interest will be supplanted by other issues more pressing in my daily life.

So today is the last day of my last summer vacation. I am going to eat lunch and take a nap. Tomorrow is the first day of my last year of teaching. Wish me luck.