Another year gone...

This has been a really tough year as a teacher. Even though I taught last year, it was a small intervention classroom and this year I taught full blown 8th grade Language Arts, so really it was like my first year all over again.
I cannot count the amount of times I felt like banging my head against the wall, throwing students out of my class, pulling my hair, crying, kicking inanimate objects, and just plain giving up. I felt, so often, that because of how rowdy my kids were, that I wasn't making a difference. Any students who wanted to learn were not getting the best teaching out of me because I was so busy setting up roadblocks and wishing for a stun gun in order to perform damage control with the rest of the class. For the past few weeks, I've been feeling a mixture of excitement and disappointment. Excited because, duh, it's the end of the year and disappointment because I'm just not happy with how the school year went. I didn't get to teach like I wanted to. But today I was proved wrong by one single student.
Remember, as a kid, you had that one teacher and you looked forward to that class all day? They made you laugh, and unlike the other teachers, they just seemed like a regular person? Well, teachers think that about certain students, too. I met the particular student I'm about to tell you about at the end of last year. I had to stand in for a 7th grade teacher one day when she had to run home to grab something. I started talking to this little girl and learned all about how much she loves to dance. I remember thinking "wow, I hope I have that girl in my class next year." And sure enough, I did. This girl was that student I looked forward to seeing every day. I wouldn't say she was my favorite because, first of all, teachers aren't supposed to have favorites and two, I had lots of favorites! But this girl and I just "got" each other. I enjoyed having her in my class every single day and looked forward to her bright smile. I attended two of her dance recitals this year and hope to attend the last one I'll ever get to see tomorrow night.
Earlier this week, I wrote my email address on my whiteboard for any students who wanted to keep it and stay in touch with me. The majority of them are very excited for me to move to England and want to hear all about my wedding and what it's like to live in England. Today, as I left the front office, this girl came up to me with tears in her eyes and gave me a hug. She asked me to sign her yearbook and I made her promise she would email me. On my drive home I thought about how much I really hoped she did, because I want to hear all about her future as a dancer.
When I got home, I noticed I had an email from an unfamiliar address.

Hey Miss Muldoon,
I know tomorrow is going to be a crazy, exciting and sad day but I was never able to tell you how much I enjoyed being in your class learning from you. You were the best teacher this year and I will never forget you naming my hairdo :) Keep in touch with me when you're in England and I want to see pictures too.
Love you always,
*name*

All that crap I dealt with this year? Totally worth it after reading that email. If I made a difference to one child, I'm happy.