Last day of class

On the last day of my English 1310 (first year English majors learn to write the college essay--think thesis sentence, topic sentences, evidence, etc), my students presented on music as poetry, so we got to listen to songs and presentations the whole class! It was a fun way to end the poetry unit, especially since they really don't like poetry. Honestly, I don't blame them--it's often so culturally sensitive and linguistically challenging that to them it appears hopeless. I felt more like a cheerleader in this unit than I had in previous units. But I think some of them ended up liking poetry--and that's a victory!
To celebrate the end of the semester, I made them brownies. At first I was really worried because NO ONE was eating them! I had taken precautions, knowing my students are Hong Kong kids and a bit fastidious--the brownies were each individually wrapped and I brought tissues for them! Finally, in the middle of the class, one of my students started to nibble. Once one person started they all ate! Phew.
So as class was ending, they all busted out their cell phone cameras and digital cameras. I took individual photos with almost all of them. Then we took a class photo. I felt proud about how close I felt to each of them and how close they felt to each other. While it will be nice to have a class next semester who didn't see me my first week of teaching, that first class will always be special.