Hello Hive friends! It's been a while and I hope you are all fine and healthy today. Also, I hope that you have had a fun-filled weekend just like I do.
A week ago, I had these remarkable bonding moments with my 7th-grade students. It was one of the most fun-filled moments that I would surely cherish until my last breath! This batch was a lot more caring and sweeter that's while they've been very close to my heart.
Our classroom is our second home. It is a place where many memories were created and forever planted in my heart. Time spent with my students who were like sons and daughters to me has always been priceless.
As the school year is about to end, I decided to replace and enhance my classroom displays ready for the next school year. What's heartwarming was that many of my students volunteered to help me decorate the classroom as their way of saying thank you before they left me and proceed to the next grade level. Huh... They're gonna left me soon😞!
Nevertheless, I delightedly agreed to the helping idea because I can't do it alone and it might be the perfect time to have bonding moments with them over the weekend although it's just voluntary.
Saturday morning...
It was still early when I came into my classroom and immediately went back to my cutting task that I did not finish the other day. I made sure I came early because I have to go to the market by 10 AM to buy some important pieces of stuff. Luckily, my agreement with my students was to meet me at 1:00 PM.
When I came back to school in the afternoon, my students did not fail me. They were there waiting for me. so, we started the afternoon tasks energetically with smiles, jokes, and laughter.
Everyone was doing something and helping each other upon my instructions of what they would do. I did not give them anything heavy or difficult to do. If they're done, they could freely rest and browse their phone, hehe... but instead, they browsed for music on YouTube and we all sang along with it! (More like we had a gig session in the classroom, haha!)
We all went home at around 3:00 PM. I did not want to hold them for long over the weekend and I promised their parents that they will be home early (YES, they were there with their parent's consent.) Although it was just a voluntary favor, still I would be grateful if some of them could come again the next day.
SUNDAY MORNING...
After church, I went to school to continue what we did not finish the other day. I did not expect to see more of my students would help me because it was Sunday. They arrived at around 10:00 in the morning.
We wasted no time! Everyone was helping with cleaning, dusting, cutting, assisting, and the like.
We were cutting out fairy figures as our decorations around the classroom. We used old cardboard and glued it to neon-pink-colored paper. The cutting process was not that easy. It caused numbness in our hands, so I let them rest every time they felt it. However, I am proud that we made 27 fairy- figures in less than three hours.
While we were busy inside the room, the boys were also busy assisting my cousin in fixing my table outside the room.
I let my other students rest while waiting for our lunch. Meanwhile, I continued posting my displays on the board. Then I stopped for our lunch. It's not yet finished. There were still a lot to be done but I was satisfied for what we had accomplished so far.
LUNCH TIME...
When my sister arrived with our lunch, we decided to put on a banana leaf and eat together with our bare hands (which we also called here a boodle fight...haha)
It was a simple lunch with fried fish as our viand but we were all happy with it!
We shared on a simple dish but the happiness it brought to us was beyond extraordinary. I will surely miss this kind of bonding with them because I know they will be on a different classroom next school year. I just hope that they will remember me and the memories as they move forward to reaching their dreams.
Reflection
There are times in our lives that we tried to hold on things or people close to our hearts because we tend to never want to lose them. However, it does not work the way we want it. As Heraclitus said, the only constant in life is change. Change is something we cannot control. As a teacher who gets different sets of students every school year, I tried my best to have quality bonding time with them as much as possible so that when change comes and they need to go and move to the next level of their educational endeavors, the memories I had with them will forever stay.
Thats all for now my friends! Thank you so much for the love and support... See you around! Big hugs and God Bless everyone!