As I mentioned in my previous post, last week was the last week of school in Moldova. I’ve written about the last day ceremony, called Last Bell, before. This year’s Last Bell was similar, but the graduating 9th graders were different.
The ceremony started with all of the students and teachers gathering in a horseshoe shape in the courtyard in front of our school. Once everyone was was in place, the 9th grade students entered the courtyard from the school, accompanied by their homeroom teachers. The same homeroom teacher stays with a group of students from 5th to 9th grade, and the relationship is supposed to be very close between the students and their homeroom teacher (the students also stay together usually from 1st grade until they graduate in 9th grade).
There were the typical speeches, by a police officer from our raion (district), a representative from our raion’s department of youth and sport, and our school director. Certificates were handed out to many students for participation in various activities and for academic achievement. The 1st grade students recited a long poem.
Since this was my very last official day at school, I was also honored during the ceremony. I was given a certificate and my partner teacher Liuba gave me a packet of notes and drawings from my students. One of my 8th grade students, Maria, wrote and recited a touching poem in English thanking me for coming here. Unfortunately, nobody got a full video, but it was very sweet. I did my best not to cry, but my eyes did tear up a bit.
The 9th grade students generally prepare dance/song performances and recite poems as part of the ceremony. A small number of them did a nice dance, one of the girls sang a song that is often used to thank teachers, and they recited a poem. There were two 9th grade classes this year, and one of the classes prepared a very touching (all of the women and girls in the crowd definitely teared up, as did several of the boys in the class) tribute to their homeroom teacher, Valentina.
They asked Doamna Valentina to stand in the middle of the courtyard, and then each student approached her, gave her a flower, hugged her, and gave her one end of a ribbon. This was accompanied with a short “the first candle is for…” thanking her for various things. This continued until she held one end of a ribbon attaching her to each of the students in her class. They then asked her to cut the ribbons, leaving part with her and the other part with each of the students. This was followed by a group hug and lots of tears.
The ceremony ended, as always, with the ringing of the final bell of the year. This is done by a 1st grade girl on the shoulder of a 9th grade boy. Then students went inside for their last homeroom class then went home. I spent some time in both of the 8th grade classrooms, then I also headed home to change for the teacher’s barbecue in the forest on the edge of our village.
The teachers gathered together to eat, drink, and celebrate the end of another year. We went to the forest this year, and everything was very delicious and everyone was very relaxed. We had a lot of fun and stayed for over 6 hours! It’s a day I doubt I’ll ever forget.
The Oke Den 