What Breaks a Teacher's Heart

Let’s have a quick survey. Just something to think about.

What do you think will break the heart of a teacher?

... an unanswered question?

… a not-so-good student’s rating?

… a messy classroom?

… a broken “house rule”?

How do you feel when school year is over?

Looking at one’s empty classroom after the students have left at the end of the school year will surely break a teacher’s heart. There is a natural tendency in any teacher to feel sad upon looking at his or her empty classroom with chairs turned upside down, the bare bulletin boards and walls, the deafening silence, and a picture of stillness inside. The classroom that was once full of life and laughter became lifeless in the absence of our dear students, and this is the same sad reality that any teacher has to face at the end of school year. When something comes to an end, there is always a sense of loss, even if it is something we actually wanted and hoped would end, like coming to school every day. The similar scenario of looking around and standing alone in an empty classroom creates a prick in my heart, a feeling that only a teacher like me can understand. But why do teachers feel sad at the end of every school year?

For me, the end of school year brings sadness and emptiness in our hearts as teachers because that marks the beginning of bringing up the memories of our students who are no longer with us and we will surely miss them. But we have to accept that in life, some good things never last.

...there is a time for everything

a time to be born and a time to die

a time to plant and a time to uproot...

a time to laugh and a time to weep...

( my version)

a time to say, “hello” and a time to say, “ goodbye”.

Lesson Learned:

Reminiscing the school year that has ended will always bring sadness in our hearts as teachers, but we have to let it go and let God set up for what lies ahead in the coming of the next school year, a new beginning.