Little Pieces of my Heart

May is hard when you are a teacher. You spend a year, or in my case four years, investing in young people who then have the nerve to do exactly what you taught them and prepared them to do--leave.

For me, I have layers of this leaving. My actual students on campus left two weeks ago. I've been embedded in two K-12 classrooms this year, though, and those goodbyes are coming. I have a couple more weeks with my second graders, but the middle school schedule has changed.

I have been working with a reading group all year, and I have come to love my little motley group. I thought we would have one more meeting, but the schedule changed. I didn't get to tell them goodbye. So...last night I did the next best thing:

 I loved writing each of them a note. For me, it was a lovely way to put a bow on our year, and I'm hoping they at least hear how proud I am of them if nothing else.

Every May little pieces of my heart go walking into the world, and it hurts. But every August, new parts come walking back in.