By the time we start thinking about dispatching our children for the summer, we should be somewhat attached to them. Shouldn't we? I want to send my students on their next journey with positivity; I do not want to tell the next year's teachers how bad the following class will be, but how much potential they have. Likewise, I don't want to listen to the talk.
Please don't tell me how loud they are.
Or how fidgety they are.
Or how much they can't do.
Or how much they don't know.
Or how much they don't care.
See what I mean? If that's all you have to say about your class, you're probably telling me more about your own teaching abilities than about the students you're sending me.
Are you trying to ruin my summer with worry? Are you setting me up to fail during the next school year? Are you trying to make me tougher? Are you trying to challenge me? Are you trying to get me to feel your pain?
Whatever it is, I don't want to start my year fresh. I know, through experience, that students respond differently to my teaching than they do to yours. That's not a kind of bragging, it's a recognition that we are different. In the same way, they responded to you differently than the year before. And so on.
Let's try to keep things positive and start the year off right!