Thursday, June 5, 2008

It’s hard to believe, but tonight my very first kindergarten class graduates from 8th grade at Greensboro Academy! That first year was a whopper for all of us… my first year teaching, the first year a brand new school was open and for most of the year we didn’t even have classrooms! Each Monday for months the teachers had to lug all of our curriculum and other materials into conference rooms at Bur Mil park in Greensboro. We hung up all our visual aids as best we could on the walls and did our best to cover the material! Did our best is key there – I had really NO IDEA what I was doing! Then every Friday we had to pack it all up, take everything down off the walls and take it home with us, just to have to do the whole thing all over again on Monday!

How did the parents sick it out, how did the teachers hang in there, and how in heaven’s name did the kids learn anything?!?! It’s hard to imagine but when the time came for the years testing the kids did SO WELL! I’m not taking credit here at all, but I sure was proud of them. I had a wonderful first class they were all so very smart! 14 girls and 7 boys, it was a total experience that’s for sure. There were lots of hurt feelings and a good bit of crying on the girl’s part, and the boys – well there was some pushing and pulling, but that was about it for them. I truly loved my class, the kids and their parents! I made some wonderful friends that year and had the BEST parent support and involvement! Some of whom I am still in contact with. It was a great first year in the classroom and one I will always have fond – if not a bit strange (we had gym class in a large banquet room, and art class around conference tables – hard for 5 year olds to work at!) memories of the first kindergarten class to attend Greensboro Academy.

I will be honored to be in attendance for the kids that are still at GA and will move on to bigger schools and very promising futures!

And boy – do I feel old!

1 comment:

Luke, Avery, Monroe's Nanny said...

Maybe you didn't know what you were doing back then, but you sure had everybody fooled! I remember the wonderful support you had from so many of the parents. They knew what a jewel they had in you teaching & loving their children. Even I recall some of the kid's names!


The "old" feeling just continues to mount. Trust me on that one. LOL