The Importance of Saying Goodbye

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by Ann Obermann, Ph.D

This spring we quickly moved our classes online and campus was closed due to Covid-19. This fall has been much of the same but added some new stressors including learning Canvas, a contentious presidential election, and rising Covid cases. We are all experiencing the isolation and stress of social distancing, job loss, health fears and Covid positive students, housing insecurity and more. Terminating at the end of the semester is important and hard under normal conditions, but our current context makes it even more important that we say goodbye intentionally and provide students the opportunity for celebration, closure, connection, and purpose.

The current pandemic can make school and work feel less important, a bother, hopeless, and a distraction to what really matters. Though difficult to endure, these are normal responses to crisis and stress. However, when we are getting ready to finish a hard semester, we do not want to feel disappointed, powerless, disconnected, or that we do not matter.

This is where saying goodbye and intentionally planning the end of your semester is essential this fall. Goodbyes, celebrating accomplishments, and having closure rituals also support trauma informed pedagogy. Trauma and chronic stress challenge our sense of purpose, takes away our agency, and strains relationships. Many of our students, in addition to experiencing a pandemic, have survived traumatic situations that have impacted their development and education.

Honor you students through:

  • Reinforcing their purpose and larger connection with you and the world.
  • Recognizing all that they have overcome and accomplished, reminding them of their strengths.
  • Sharing the importance of relationship by providing space for them to connect with you and their peers through saying goodbye and how you will stay connected in the future.

You may think you don’t have time to devote to good-byes, but please challenge yourself as to whether the final chapter or lecture is really necessary and instead, make time and space for your students to name and celebrate their hardships, accomplishments, relationships, and say goodbye.

Try This:

Here are some suggestions to help your students during this traumatic time and to make saying goodbye a little easier:

  1. Consider making a goodbye video reviewing main take ways from your course, what you have learned from your students and how they have impacted your life, how you will remember them, and your hopes for their future.
  2. Provide your contact information and encourage students to get in contact with you in the future. Encourage them to get on LinkedIn or join and alumni group on campus.
  3. Use space in their final assignment feedback to include a personal statement and goodbye to each student and make sure to use their name.
  4. Create a meme or GIF making fun of yourself or sharing an inside class joke and distribute to your students in the final week. Or have them create something in a final discussion post.
  5. Share what they have learned, accomplished, created, and acknowledge them getting through despite the pandemic!
  6. Hold space for students to share their appreciation and feelings to one another and the instructor through a video chat like Flipgrid.
  7. Recognize your own successes in teaching during a pandemic and celebrate with your colleagues all you have accomplished!

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