The parting of the ways..

The last day of summer school actually required planning, i.e. what we were going to do with the students and when. The plan then had to be approved by our FDOs. The day started off pretty normal. When we got to school we saw as usual many students outside of school waiting eagerly for our bus to turn up. Most were in casual clothes, some had presents in hand. Assembly was conducted this day as well and the students were reminded that this was the last day and that they should take care of cleanliness in their classrooms. 

After assembly they filed into class and we told them what the day is going to be like.
We started with an opening circle in which we tossed a ball to each of our students and asked random questions like what they thought of summer school and why they had a particular nickname, etc. After this we took them upstairs to one of the empty rooms and played cricket with them. The four of us fellows divided responsibility in such a way that the guys played with the kids, I kept an eye on the kids making sure they don’t wander around and disturb other classes and the fourth fellow took pictures.

When we went back to our room, we asked them to write about what they thought of summer school and what they thought of us and put it in the positive posts’ letterboxes that one of us fellows had made. Then we played dumb charades with the kids which was really funny because they all wanted to participate in acting out but on the other hand when in front of the classroom they were really shy.

Then one of our students' parents showed up (we weren't expecting parents would show up!) and we spoke to them about their child’s performance. They were going to leave soon after but we asked them to stay for a bit. Since they were about the only parents who had showed up that day and were sitting kind of idle, we asked the student’s father to do the certificate distribution ceremony with us and he willingly obliged.

After this we asked our students to do a parody of us. Some of the things like the 'Do Now' one of the fellows used to do was apparently very famous and kids acted that out really well. One of them mimicked me by entering with a bag on their shoulders, putting it on the table then pretending to put up a chart on the board. This actually was something I did in a number of my classes! He then gave out work and then did behavior narration as well and we fellows were amazed!

Done with the parodies, we engaged some of the kids in a game of scrabble. Then we announced the 'Man of the Match' (meaning best performing student in class since we had a cricket theme). We then gifted Urdu story books to each one of our students. Another fellow gave out letters she had written to each student. Some of the kids had brought gifts for us too, but we were not allowed to take them unless it was something they had made by hand. So I got one of my students to unwrap the gift he had brought. It was a show piece. I told him that I'm not allowed to take it but he refused to listen and seemed hurt. Another student had brought these big boxes wrapped in golden paper. I told him I can’t take it and even if I do, I'll send them back in September. He was like 'Don’t return it! Or else I’ll break them all into pieces. Take it away, give it someone else if you want but don’t return it I’m telling you!’ he said firmly.

Meanwhile, the father of another student showed up and I started talking to him. After this one of my students came up to me and gave me a folded piece of paper and asked me not to read it now but read it as I left the school. Soon it was time to pack up and leave. We took down all the charts and cleaned up the classroom. I went back to the kid who had gifted me the showpiece and apologized to him for not taking the present and told him that he's a great kid and I loved having him in class. He had tears in his eyes and was trying very hard to blink them away and that almost had me crying too but then some of the other kids noticed and started teasing me so i couldn't cry anymore because they made me laugh :p

All packed up, we got into our vans. I got the last seat in the back by the window and was grateful for it since it meant a few moments of solitude. As our van turned out of the school alley, the student who'd gifted me the showpiece shook my hand through the van window and then kissed his hand after that and that was the single-most touching moment of the day. I then opened the note that the other student had given to me to read as I left and saw that it said: ‘I knew you wouldn’t take the gift so I put it in your bag.’ Sure enough, there was a gift in my bag from him. He had given me a watch. (*See note below for the story behind the watch.)

So yeah that’s how it all ended. I read the other notes kids had written as positive posts when I got to our training site. One of them had written 'Miss you don’t teach well. You give good marks to some students and bad marks to others.’ I know it sounds funny but this one made me feel really sad :(

Our day at the training site was spent doing reflections which made me realize a number of things about myself. Overall it was a sad day and the sadness actually set in once I got home.

*The story behind the watch:

A couple of days before this, as one of my students shook hands goodbye, he told me that another student had brought me a watch. That student was standing a couple of feet behind me discussing something with his friend and when he saw me look at him he came over. He said something to the kid with me in Pashto and I deciphered it as him asking if I had found out about the gift. When he replied in the affirmative he said something to him in annoyance then turned to me and said ‘I’m sorry teacher.’ Then he took out the watch from his pocket and placed it in my hand saying ‘We don’t like it when you have to borrow from someone else.’ See what had been happening was that I had been borrowing a watch from one of my friends regularly for each of my classes and often that friend would show up after my class to ask for it back. This exchange had sometimes occurred in front of my students. I told him I can’t take it from him and he pushed away my hand insisting I keep it. So I asked him to keep it with him and that we’ll see about this on our last day to which he finally agreed and I managed to avoid the situation. It was kind of embarrassing but I was really amazed at how much they observe the tiniest of moves their teachers make.