Realizing Provision

For now, my days of teaching Grade 2 are finished. This fall, I am planning to move upstairs to a bigger classroom and bigger desks and bigger children. I am curious and excited to experience this change.

At the same time, I am aware that I am saying goodbye to something beautiful.

In honour of my short three years in Grade 2, I am going to use the prompts I give to my students at the end of the year (with a few extra liberties to write more than one thing per category).

What I Loved the Most:

1. My students
2. When students made good choices
3. Listening to my students’ stories about their weekends
4. Reading and hearing the delightful things my students wrote and said

My students have biscuit ordinations at their churches. They tell stories about people who try to travel but miss their flight at the plane station. They hope against hope that we will go to the owl aquarium for our field trip. They insert “thees,” “thous,” and “saiths,” into their stories about Jonah. They ask, politely, “Do you comb your hair really fast? Because it’s kind of messy.” No, child, I don’t do anything fast. It just struggles to keep up with my wild days spent with you all. They tell me that my “fluffy” coat is lucky and makes me run faster. They thank me for teaching them because they never could have got that smart without me. They are beautiful works in progress. To them belongs the kingdom of heaven.

The Hardest Part:

1. Dealing with feelings of failure, and not knowing exactly what I can learn from it yet
2. Knowing where to stop

Favourite Books:

1. My Father’s Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett
2. Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne
3. “You Read to me, I’ll Read to You” book series by Mary Ann Hoberman (They love these stories and the partner reading as much as I do.)
4. Shel Silverstein’s poem books (although they sometimes require some frantic proofreading before I begin)

Favourite Recess Game:

1. Snag-a-Bag (Aka Stealing Sticks)

Nowhere have I felt so good about my athletic abilities as I do when I’m playing games with Gr. 1 and 2. When I had P.E. with Gr. 1 and told them I was going to be on the one team for Snag-a-bag, the other team was horrified. One of them said, “But you’ll use little children running, right?!” One of my girls also referred to me as a jet one day, because I’m so fast. Nowhere else have I got those sorts of compliments.

Favourite Songs:

1. Bate, Bate, Chocolate
2. O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus
3. There’s a Fountain Free

“Bate, Bate, Chocolate” has a hand-clapping game to go with it, which I loved watching my students perform. We learned sign language for “O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus.” Hearing children sing about the Fountain that is open to all of us who are thirsty is always meaningful to me.

Favourite Subject:

I always struggle with this question, maybe because Grade 2 content wasn’t the main reason I was there. Since I’m stuck, I will share a student’s answer instead: “Recess of cours.”

Important Things I Learned:

1. To ask for help.
2. That pride and a low view of myself are very connected, and humility and confidence are, too.

How dare you tell me 

I need to grow?

(As if you don’t know

What all I have tried

And all I have spent?)

Pride builds its defense

and narrows its eyes.

When time gives space

To see more clearly

Where I am wrong

And you are right,

My pride changes forms

and disguises itself.

How dare I think

That I should be here?

(As if I could ever be

Strong enough

Wise enough

To give what is needed

In this position?)

My best isn’t enough;

Why do I try?

Pride and self-abasement join their nasty, gnarly, narcissistic hands 

And seek what they can steal, kill, and destroy.

Lord, grant me humility–

Humility that bows low then confidently rises and takes the next steps, hand held in Yours,

Humility that hears and receives both affirmation and critique,

Humility that opens the gateway to the path toward growth,

Humility that accepts having potential instead of having arrived,

Humility that is honest with myself and as kind to myself as I would be to a dear friend,

Humility that grieves what I am not and then leaves all the weight of it in Your hands– the hands of the I AM,

Humility that discerns where to let go and where to say “no,”

Humility that recognizes there is only one Savior, and it is not me. 

That’s it for the prompts. So goodbye, Grade 2.

Goodbye chasing and being chased by crinkly-eyed children in fits of giggles.

Goodbye cleaning up unknown lunch substances from the floor while children around you gag and look and away and proclaim that this is why they do not want to teach Grade 2 when they grow up.

Goodbye sweet cards and creations—volcanoes and bracelets and pumpkins—handed to me proudly or shyly plopped on my desk.

Goodbye, Grade 2, and farewell.