HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2005-07-07, Page 15THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JULY 7, 2005. PAGE 15.
Valedictorian looks back on years at
By Kalen Hammermeuller
Tonight I am
going to tell you a
story.
This story begins
in JK where most
of our Grade 8
class saw the
school and each
other for the first
time. Highlights of
kindergarten were:
making huge paper things, hunting for
cookies and naptime - which I think
should be extended to all grades.
And ... I don’t think the teachers
would mind either. I’ve even seen Mr.
Payne nodding off a couple of times.
He calls it a meditative moment. But. if
he catches us drooling on our desks...
The worst thing about kindergarten
was having to crane our necks up to
see the seemingly giant-sized people
and some of us are still looking up.
Recently a book was published called
All I Ever Needed to Learn in Life 1
Learned in Kindergarten. I think our
class took that to heart.
Grade 1 and 2 were a blur of excite
ment, great teachers, new kids and our
class learned a very important thing
about life - the dinosaur stomp.
In Grade 3 Mr Park blew us away
with his fun ways of doing stuff. We all
enjoyed listening to him play his banjo
and we all loved being told scary sto
ries around a "real” smokeless camp
fire in a dark room. We really weren’t
scared even though a number of us
slept with the lights on.
Thursdays were always a blast
because of Sail Day. At the end of the
day our class would participate in
many different activities including:
building a ship out of materials around
the classroom. One of the best things
about Mr. Park was that he let us do
something most teachers won’t - write
notes. For most of note day the only
way we could communicate was
through notes.
In Grade 4. we had a talented
singing teacher who loved to teach us
how to sing, Mrs. Murray. The day we
went to the pioneer village is one of
our fondest memories. For the entire
day we lived as if we were pioneers. I
and the other lefthanders were pun-
GREYS GRADS — The Grade 8 class at Grey Central Publie School is, back row, from left: Stephanie Zaba, Dakota Adams,
Taylor Prior, Jordan Atkinson, Chris Brodreeht, Brian Burgess, Danica Zwep. Middle: Mackenzie Vanllell, Julianne Binder,
Kyle Bateman, Kristofer Peeler, Mike Donkcrs, Lynn Boyer, Rebecca Wilbee and Monique Kehoe. Front: Paige Keffer,
Eachunn Blaney, Angie Winger, TVIcr Schott, Kalcm Ilammermuellcr, Torie Clarke, James Dillon and Jolanda Smith.
ished for being southpaws. Halfway
through the year Mrs. Murray had a
baby, leaving us with a zillion supply
teachers.
We met Mr. Walker in Grade 5 not
knowing we would have him for two
years in a row. At the start of the year
Mr. Walker laid down a set of rules
which he never followed. So every
time he broke a rule we took him to our
class court. Our class court was sup
posed to teach us what court is like. We
found out that our court always turned
into a screaming contest.
Another highlight in Grade 5 was
making movies and doing plays. It was
always fun to show off our abilities to
act-
Grade 6 was a fun repeat with Mr.
Walker. The doghouse was yet another
invention of his. This was the place
where our names went when we were
in trouble. Most of us were in the dog
house on a regular basis. One of the
gruelling tasks of Grade 6 was writing
out notes for two-and-a-half-hour
movies which we didn't use anyway.
Grade 7 was memorable in my mind
especially. The first time we saw Miss
Henry we knew it was going to be an
exciting year. When we came to Grade
7 we weren't very organized. You
could say Miss Henry fixed that. She
was always going out of her way to
bake us food and give us extra gym
time. Overall, she cleaned up our lazi
ness and made us better athletes.
And above all else, she taught us
how to turn a simple everyday kitchen
item like a tablecloth, into a fashion
Grey Central
statement.
In this our final year at Grey, we
could out that Mr. Payne was NOT the
scary, mean, hardcore guy that we
thought he was in Grade 5. Instead, he
is a musical, artistic, big-hearted
teacher. Mr. Payne, his ability to play
the guitar and sing, taught us how to
croon even better.
1 guess I was wrong when 1 said we
didn't get nap time in Grade 8. When
Mr. Payne starts getting off topic with
one of his many stories, we can always
catch a few winks! Now ... don’t get
me wrong. This isn't a bad thing nec
essarily. We get to hear fascinating sto
ries and catch up on missed sleep
as well, which is important for
teenagers.
Our years at Grey have been great.
And I would like to thank my class
mates for choosing me to share these
memories with you. Besides our home
room teachers, many others have con
tributed as well to our memorable
experiences here. I would like to say
“merci” to Madame C. who taught us
French from Grades 1 to 8, Mrs.
Cochrane who has faithfully been our
secretary for a long time now. Mr. and
Mrs. Baker our custodians (and what a
mess we left everyday), our lengthy
list of principals Mr. Statia, Mrs.
Peach, Mrs. McDowell and Mr. Snell
whom we must have worn out along
the way and to all the staff and EAs.
Thank you to everyone for always
going that extra mile.
We’re ready now to begin the next
chapter in our life story.
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