why I will miss teaching.

I said goodbye to all of my students two weeks ago. I also said goodbye to my good friend and co-teacher, Julianne. It was a long, sad week, in all honesty. Too many goodbyes all at once for me.

At any rate, I have been contemplating all of the lovely and unlovely bits of teaching that I will miss. In so many ways, this year of teaching has completely exceeded my expectations, and I have thoroughly loved it. Which is definitely why saying goodbye to it has been just so bitter.

I will miss seeing students grow intellectually, personally, and in character. I could relate story upon story of blossoming students, of changed behavior, of naughty ones developing into hilariously cute ones. This is undoubtedly one of the greatest bits about teaching, anywhere, and it makes it all so worthwhile. [Thanks, Jimmy.]

I will miss seeing students develop in creativity. Learning in Taiwan is based more around memorization (which makes sense for Chinese) and less around independent thinking...which means that many students have a difficult time writing a story, or drawing a picture, or doing anything that requires them to think on their own. As a teacher, I've loved finding ways to encourage them in this area, and it's so exciting to see their own ideas come out.

I will miss the quirkiness of my students... their cute, little Taiwanese accents and (wrong) phrases... their outgoing personalities and their subdued ones... their sense of humor (poo poo never grows old. ever.)... their excitement for life and the way they communicate it to me.

Teaching has been a joy-filled, entertaining, stretching, and ultimately so rewarding way to spend this past year, and I wouldn't trade it. And I'm missing it already.