Episode 34: Saying Goodbye Each Year is Hard
00:00:00 Jon Bergmann: Welcome back to the Reach Every Student Podcast. I'm your host, Jon Bergman. You know, today's topic is not going to be AI related. I want to talk rather about something that's been deeply personal to me at this time of year as we end out the twenty-four twenty-five school year. But before I get to that, I want to put in a plug for your summer professional development goals. I've created three online courses that can help you, help your game over the summer. It's a way to help you as we enter this AI age in how you can better prepare yourself for teaching in the age of AI. I'm really convinced that if we move to more of a flipped learning model, a flipped and a mastery learning model, In the age of AI, it is more practical than ever, ever before. To that end, at my website at jonbergman.com, you can find three courses, one on flip learning best practices, For the K-12, Flip Learning Best Practice Higher Education and the Mastery Learning Handbook, book I recently wrote that will help you to think about how you can rethink how class works. So, that's jonbergman.com. Slash courses for that. Hey, and now let's get to today's topic.
00:01:08 Jon Bergmann: And today's topic is how do you say goodbye to your students? So as I sit here, we have one week left of school. Our seniors, I'm a high school teacher, our seniors graduate one week from almost, well, I guess one week from today and there are students that I'll never forget for the rest of my life. They are students that have impacted me and changed me. And you know what I've found over the years, this is, this is year thirty-nine okay, I'm an old teacher, ah, that at this time of the year, I always kind of go through a little mini depression. My wife knows this is coming. I know it's coming. You see, I have spent nine months spending time with a bunch of teenagers and each of my classes has its own little ecosystem of kids. And some are goofy and some are serious. Some are sad. There's been tragedy in some of the lives of some of my students. There's been triumphs. We won a state football championship in Texas. That's a big deal. It's a really big deal in Texas. There was triumphs. There was tears, there was total laughter, there was total frustration by me sometimes. We're like, I really was a bad teacher today. All the, all of these added together kind of come up together at once. But I guess my biggest emotion that I feel is Loss, it's grief, I guess. I know that what we have had as a group of classes, each class being different, It will never be the same. Now some of these students are going on to graduate and I won't see them again, some of them maybe ever, and some of the students I have, I will see next year, some I will even have in class next year, but it will be a different batch of kids And yeah, kids can be frustrating, but at the same time, and I hope you hear this, And I hope you have this if you're a teacher. They can be, they are life-giving. I was reflecting during my devotion time this morning that I am blessed to have the opportunity To work with kids and to actually have an impact. Now, you can have an impact if you're a trash collector. but I feel like that, that, you know, I'm a man of faith is that God has placed me at this time at this place for these kids. And that's, that's. Yeah, I play a role. I play a role in what that looks like. I play a role in their life and it's for a brief season and I am okay with that season, although I get a little depressed at the end of each year. I guess. And you know, this is all happening in the midst of Manic May. I call it Manic May, by the way. Teachers, you know what I'm talking about. May is crazy. You know, today's the prom. That's right, prom. Half of our kids are gone. They're all dolling themselves up, getting ready for the prom. And, we've got a bunch of kids gone. We have had finals coming in. AP tests were last week and the week before. AP tests were yesterday. I had students in an AP test yesterday. I have to fill out forms for some students at our school. If they have a better, over a certain grade, then they can get an exemption. I got kids asking me, did I get the exemption? Did I not get the exemption? they're preparing for finals or not, depending on if they get this exemption. we've got two big awards assemblies next week. And on top of all that, I, I'm teaching juniors and seniors now, mostly juniors. And guess what? They're all asking me for college letters of recommendation. In fact, I'm making this. Podcast when I should probably write, be writing one of those letters. I've got a stack. Oh my gosh. so I'm crazy busy racing to the end of the year. can't wait to some degree for it to end. And I, Sad to see it end.
00:04:47 Jon Bergmann: you know, it takes a village to raise kids and we can't do this alone. You know, I'm a father of three. My, my, my kids, my own children are all grown and they're wonderful humans and great, great Yeah, awesome. I won the lottery there. but what I've also found out is that it just takes a village to raise these kids. And I think about this school. Just minutes ago, I just left a conversation with one of our coaches. And we were just talking about one of his players and who I also have in class. And we just said, how can we incentivize this young man so he could thrive? He gets in his own way sometimes. And what we want to do is how could we help him to really Be the man that he could become. We see so much in him. But what was so awesome about that was is that it wasn't just me. I get the privilege of working at a place where People really are looking out for each student and saying, how can we reach every student? That's the title of this podcast. And this place is really about that. And by the way, if you're interested, we're hiring. Come work with me. We need a science teacher to come walk alongside me. If you want to, you know, go to HoustonChristianHighSchool.com or whatever it is, whatever the website is, probably .org. At Houston Christian High School, we're hiring. Come on. Come work with me. Anyway, as I think about saying goodbye, I got a couple of students that came to mind. I had a student who shared with me some things about what she was going through this year, some family conflict. Teachers, you know this happens. Kids will tell you stories and it hits you, right? She wasn't able to be at the last two classes. And at the last, before the class she was about to miss, she just had to come say goodbye. And I can't tell you how much that meant to me. This young lady has been special to me in the sense that she really has She's a student who took a very difficult class That was a real push for her and at first she didn't think she could do it. And I could see the lack of confidence and it's like, I don't have what it takes. And then slowly, me working with her a lot of time, she got the confidence and, and she just knocked out of the park. And she's walking away from the school, she's a senior, And she'll graduate next week and she will, she's gonna just do great. I mean, yeah, and it's gonna be hard to see her walk across that stage next, next Friday. And then another young lady as well. And she, she struggled a lot. I, I've had both these students for more than one year now. And this other student I had, three years ago. Actually both of them, like I said, three years ago when they were sophomores. And this one, this other student, she struggled with many issues, which are not important. And yet, she just came back this year, her senior year, and was just such, such a, an amazing young girl who really is She's so much healthier than she was and I just am just reveling in who she is and who she's becoming and And I also know, again, go back to this idea, it's not just me, right? We have a village of people, it's not just me. There's family, there's parents, there's grandparents probably, there's all these other folks who are pouring into these students. And the more I think about our students, this, this generation of students, They need, they're crying out for adult input. If you are a grandparent, if you are an older, I don't know, somebody older than the students, they desperately want mentors to come alongside them and show them the way. And there's this thing, I don't know, there's this thing sometimes out in the popular media that, you know, we should, you know, trust the students, and I trust students, so I don't, I'm not saying this quite as I'm trying to say it here out loud, is We as adults have a lot to offer students, young people, and the young people really want that direction. And sometimes I feel like we have abdicated our responsibility to pass on the lessons we've learned to the next generation. Now that might be like if you're a grandparent, you know, helping out at a local school, if you're retired maybe, and reading to kids. Or it might look like, hey, there's a 30-something young man In your, in your community who's got, some kids and, and you could come alongside them cause your kids are grown or I don't know what that looks like for you, but man, that the younger generation is desperate. For older people who've walked the road and who have figured out a thing or two to help them along the way. And I see that every day here at school as I work with students. They are longing for it. Now sometimes they They're rebelling. There's also this sort of teenage angst and rebellion piece that happens sometimes, of course. And some of them, they'll say they don't want it, but they really do. So, you know. This is personal for me. You know, as I, I've been thinking, again, you know, a lot of times I'm talking here about artificial intelligence, and as I think about the harms of some of the AI stuff and of social media and all that stuff, For me, it's different than some, it's not, I can, I'm not talking about it in generalities, I'm talking about it with real people in mind, real young people who've been harmed by certain things and to me that really It matters. And, and I hope that, that, that you have young people in your life so that when you see the, some of the things I'll be talking about in the future about AI and where I'm afraid it might be going is that you are also. Thinking about somebody who's a real person that this is impacting because these are real people who, um, they matter, right? So as I, as I, as I close, let me give you some old, some advice from an old teacher. if you're a teacher, I don't know if you're a teacher or not, but some thoughts. as we say goodbye to a new batch of students. Now, I'll get a new batch, right? Year forty next year. And I'm looking forward to that, to meeting some new students, interacting with them. But yet at this stage of the year, as I say goodbye to this batch, I think of a saying, and I'm gonna butcher it, but you know, one who loves much will also hurt much when that person So, grief is not a bad thing. I lost my mom. It wasn't a bad thing. When you grieve so much, it says how much you loved her, right, you know, or whatever. I hope that you teachers, I know you're tired. This is the end of the year and you can't wait to get to summer. I can't either. It's okay to grieve and to grieve the loss of this group, but then look forward to next, right? And as I think about these students who are about to be launched, you know, it's okay to be launched. We, students need to be tested. There's another thing that I believe about young people. Is sometimes we hand things to them too much and we don't let them really struggle. We've talked about earlier in a different episode about what I think is some of the critical things is we want students to go through productive struggle. In that context, I was talking about cognitive productive struggle, you know, in learning, like, content. They need productive struggle in their life. They need to go out and fail. They need to get a job and lose it. Hopefully, you know, maybe not, but they need to go out and struggle and And figure things out for themselves. Hopefully having a mentor who can come alongside them, but not one who's going to take away the pain. We learn through pain, don't we? So it's okay. I, I, I look forward to where the students that I have who will be launched in a week and where they're going to go. Yeah. And as I also think, and again, teachers, At this time and in this place, I had a role. I had a role to shepherd this group of students to the next level. Whatever that means. Some of them it's gonna be launched into the world of college. I had a conversation with a student today who is not thinking of college. He's thinking about becoming an electrician. We had a fascinating conversation about that. Launching them into what's going to be best for them and their life so that they can thrive. And then next year, I get to start over. Hopefully I'll be a little better. I'm going to be more focused on a few things. I've been contemplating what I could do differently next year. I had a couple of classes that I struggled with, as is normal, but how could I make that Less. Not less to struggle with. I'm okay with a struggle, but I lost control. Let's say it. Some classes like, the children are running the class and not me right now. Sometimes I feel that way. I don't know if you've ever been there, but I have. So thanks for listening. I hope that this is, not just about AI and, flip learning, but you're hearing my heart for school, for kids, and I hope that you, maybe you're an aspiring teacher and you're interested in thinking about Becoming a teacher. Come visit my class. I'd love to just chat with you. Yeah, Houston, Texas. Come see me. Hey, thanks for listening. I encourage you to hit the subscribe button. Share it with your friends. It's super easy, whatever podcast app you use. Also, if you're interested in AI proofing your classroom, don't forget jonbergman.com. Jon Bergmann is spelled J-O-N-B-E-R-G-M-A-N-N. So there's no H in Jon and two N's in Bergmann. jonbergmann.com.
00:14:04 Jon Bergmann: And they'll help prepare you for the future. Hey, give the podcast a review too as it helps me to get this in front of more eyes and actually ears, right? So go now and reach every student. You can find out more at reacheverystudent.com.
