Last Day-Theresa Coomer

I step out in the sunshine with a bittersweet sigh of goodbye.  There is the sweetness in the relief of summer without the timetables of the school years. There is the bitterness of knowing that this is most likely my last year teaching at the school I have called home for the past six years.  There is the sweetness of knowing I was able to step in and help bring a sense of normalcy to an abnormal year for my sixth graders.  Having the tools of digital learning made it possible for me to broadcast my lessons from Paw Paw back to Skokie daily.  As the classes and I navigated through the “I think you are muted,” “Let me screen share,” “Ask me on goguardian,” and “I will just post it in google classroom, give me a sec,” we persevered.  There were plenty of days that technology was not working properly or the wifi connection was slow, but we pivoted and adjusted to every situation.  We worked together to rise above the challenges and make the most of our year together. We learned a lot and had a bit of fun along the way.  We had the added bonus of our class mascots, Timmy and Violet.  It has been one of the great pleasures of my teaching career to have had the opportunity to be your teacher this past year and I look forward to what the future holds for each one of you. As I took the short walk back to my car on friday, thankful to have had the opportunity to say goodbye in person, I smiled.  It has been a tough year in so many ways, but I had a great group of students to weather any storms and have brought the sunshine through the clouds. We learned to expect the unexpected.  As I stopped in front of my car and looked back toward the building, a bird swooped down on me and bopped me on the head. In a year full of surprises, this was the weirdly perfect way to end.