Yesterday marked the end of the school year for all students at AIS. Our classroom got a makeover in the form of a 'competition.' I handed out tasks to groups of students like 'Take down the bulletin board, return pictures to Ms. Root, recycle the paper' and 'Take all books of the shelf and place them in the bottom drawer of each filing cabinet.' The group with the most successfully completed tasks at the end won. It was a competitive 40 minutes at the end of which the classroom was hardly recognizable. It certainly will save me a lot of time prepping for the summer!
Our last day was spent watching a video of our plays that we performed last week, showing off our athleticism (during the movie of course), eating some food, playing a few games, and having an impromptu lesson/discussion on wildlife conservation and the importance of balancing wildlife populations in order to prevent starvation. I really had no intention of having this lesson (our current unit was on drama, not habitat or eco-systems), but we watched the movie Hoot, and the discussion just happened. It was exciting to see how into it they got, and through that discussion we moved on to the importance of plants, oxygen, the sun, and how the Earth is the only known planet capable of supporting life. One student even asked that all important question: How is it possible that Earth is in the exact position capable of supporting life? How could it of possibly just got there? I, of course, am forbidden to give my opinion to such questions, but that restriction is not on students who were more then happy to offer their various viewpoints. I was impressed by the critical thinking of the 10 year old who voiced the question. I answered as diplomatically as I could (those of you who know me well can just imagine how that probably went).
Overall it was a bitter sweet day. Every one of my students hugged me and told me they would miss me (they know how to suck up well) and most came back for seconds, thirds, and fourths on the hugs. Kuwiat is an affectionate country (as far as children are concerned anyway). It was a lovely day of goodbyes, celebrations, and smiles.
While I will miss them a lot... each end is just a new beginning.
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