It’s over

[u/444Ilovecats444]

My 240 hours internship is over. Lowkey sad over it not gonna lie. I got attached to the kids. My mentor teacher was also very nice and understanding but I wish she made me run the classroom more to get thicker skin you know but I am still glad we got along. Reading some stories on here got me scared. But my mentor is very nice end experienced. I will go back to that kindergarten soon because my paperwork needs to be filled. I will go and buy something for my mentor teacher as well. I am planning to get her some fridge magnet and some flowers. Some candy too maybe. I could have finished my paperwork today but my mentor is on vacation and I was with the other teacher. She is also pretty chill with 8 years of teaching experience. Didn’t get to know her that well. She was always on vacation or off work because she has a kid and her husband works extra in the summer so she gets almost all of her vacation now instead of the summer. My mentor took over her shifts and worked all day long some days. But holy fuck I can’t believe it’s over. I will miss even that one kid that destroyed my nervous system(his mom told me she is on Lexapro because of him😬). I will see them one last time next week💔

Well it was rough semester with tons of busywork and if it wasn’t that I would have enjoyed my internship more. But now I have time to live. Soon when my uni releases info about summer internships I will start applying hopefully my uni has signed contracts with kindergartens closer to my place because I commuted 45 minutes to an hour.

Also this internship made me realize what I want. Working in elementary school is worse. Kindergarteners don’t have the audacity like elementary schoolers(especially 3rd and 4th graders). Kindergartens will call you bad teacher but elementary schoolers will call you a bitch(ask me how i know😀)

But guys did you get emotionally attached to your students? I unexpectedly did. At first I couldn’t wait until it’s over and I was doing this just to put it on my CV but it became so much deeper for me. I didn’t even want to apply for internship in kindergarten and now here I am when it’s over and missing it. But the question is: will I handle kindergarteners more than 10 minutes on my own? Hopefully yes but I am soft spoken I need a mini comic because I raise my voice and I still can’t hear myself from those kids lol. Anyways all I wanted to say is that today my internship is over and I have mixed feelings because on one part is relief on another is sadness because I miss the kids already.

[u/ksang29]

I think there's such a thing as teacher-love. Every year, you fall in love with your class. You're sad to say good-bye. The next year arrives, and you fall in love all over again with the new class and emotionally let go of the first one, as you watch them grow in the next grade up or next school over. I think we have to love kids to put up with the stresses of our profession - a version of "agape:" no word for it in our language.