Kelli McGraw

Alas, Mr. K’s promotion up to Brisbane is in full swing, and now my HSC class is all wrapped up, it’s time for me to start my leave and follow suit.  Term 4 I’ll be finishing my PhD (yes, “finally”), and next year I’ll find a casual or temporary teaching job in Brisbane.  These are exciting times!

I know I have mentioned around the place that I am moving, but up until now I’ve been too busy to really think about it, or talk about it much.  The last couple of days of school were quite teary, and a lot of students came out of the woodwork to say goodbyes and thank yous.  It was sad, but lovely.  I had some great class parties – thanks for the cards and presents 🙂  I will miss my colleagues and students (not to mention family and friends!).

On Thursday, two comments that I found full of symbolism, and so very typical of an English teacher and her humanities-loving students 😉 were these:

1. I was talking with two very awesome students from year 10 about maybe going to their formal, and about some books I was supposed to lend them.  I said that I would leave the books at school for them to read next term – that way we also could be sure that we’d see each other again before the end of the year, because I’d neeed to get my books back even if I didn’t go to the formal.  And one of them started crying 😦
2. Later, another year 10 student brought me a present – a book where you write down all the books you want to read, books you love, and books you have leant out to other people (because she had had my copy of Eclipse for about 6 months, and I had forgotten!)  We started talking about how the move was finally seeming real, and I mentioned that it had felt real to me once I found boxes to pack up my bookshelf.  I reckon moving never seems really real until you acknowledge you’ll have to pack up your books.  Then I started crying! Then we both were crying 😦

Geeze, I had done so well all week! Ah well…I think most of you who have read this far will know how hard it can be to leave a school.  But bright things are on the horizon!

I’ll be keeping up my blog, hopefully even improving it.  One thing that is making the idea of moving easier is the strength and quality of my PLN…so thank you!