To My First Students,

I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for the memories and experience you have given me. Let me first begin by explaining how bizarre it is to look back to my first day of student teaching, a day when I had never known your faces or names. And now, I cannot imagine my life without having known you in it.

I credit you for continuing to fuel my drive and passion further. If I had to choose one word, I would say that it was fate that brought me into your classroom. How strange it is to go your whole life not knowing someone and then to get swept into a routine with them daily - a routine that you suddenly cannot imagine your life without. So, knowing that you would all be returning to class, without me standing in the hall waiting to greet you, has been like a process of grieving for me. But as Winnie the Pooh once said, “how lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard?”

I was always incredibly eager to interact with each of you. There were so many different personalities in our class and it has been an absolute pleasure getting to work with each of them, from complimenting your efforts when I noticed you speaking more, to making an inside joke from class that day with you. For three months of my life, every moment revolved around you. I spent hours planning, teaching, creating and grading. I made you my priority whether you could see it or not. I took so much pride in being able to call you my students. I was proud of the way you carried yourselves in class and in the hall, the way so many of you would look out for and encourage other classmates. I was proud of the mature conversations and academic risks you took part in and enjoyed getting to see you improve and grow as people and as students. You are such a fun, intelligent, and kind group of students and I can only pray that you never change.

This experience has been the most challenging and rewarding experience of my life. I’ve never felt so equally exhausted and inspired all at once. I only wish I had more time with you all as there is so much more I wish I could have done with you, so much more I know I could have learned from you. But I am eternally grateful for the opportunity I had and being allowed to take you away from your teacher and to call you ‘my own’ for a period of time.

Student teaching can really make or break an individual. It is the first real exposure to the career us educators plan to embark on for years to come. In those short months, you could learn that you aren’t cut out for teaching. I could have been scared and found myself wanting to run in the opposite direction, but I am so grateful to have had an experience that makes me want to run harder and faster towards my dream career, my ultimate goal. I owe this to all of you, the first and only kids I will ever get to call my first students. Thank you for being a constant reminder of why I fell in love with this profession in the first place. Thank you for confirming that teaching is more of a passion than it is a job. Thank you for inspiring me to be a better person. And thank you for allowing me to learn and grow with you.

I hope to see you all again. I know that for some, I will see or hear from you again. For some, maybe I will read about your accomplishments online or in a paper one day. Maybe we will be fortunate enough to cross paths some other way. And for many, I know I will not see you again. I will be left to wonder what paths you have pursued and the type of person you went on to become. Despite the sadness that comes with that fact, I will never forget a single one of you as each of you have had such an impact on my life whether you know it or not. All I can say is good luck to my next group of students as you have all set the bar very high. Thank you once more for being the best first students; ones I couldn’t have even dreamed of having. Looking back over these three months I have gone from being a stranger, to your teacher, to your eternal supporter--something that will never change.

Thank you for everything.

Always,

Ms. Studholme