“STORIES DEFINE:
Who we are.
Where we have come from.
Where we are going. . . and
What we care about!
Stories give life!”
— Dana Atchley
Dana Atchley’s insightful declaration was the catalyst for my digital story project. Saying goodbye to students as they move on to high school is a way of ‘letting go’. Metaphorically, it is this instance when teachers “give back the children”. For ten months these young people are kept safely within the confines of our classrooms; we watch them grow older, taller, and hopefully wiser. Their stories merge with our own, and they essentially become family! The purpose of this digital story presentation was to say ‘farewell’ in a manner which allowed me to show my students the impact they’d all made on my life. Previously, I had typed and delivered good-bye letters to my students. This combination of music and images, I believe, will allow my message to be conveyed in a more powerful way.