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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. ‘Ifest ‘lAHsfies (Jraefuates! McCall Livestock P.O. Box 140 Brussels, ON NOG 1H0 85491 Brussels Line • Order Buyers • Slaughter/Feeder Cattle • Weslern/Eastern/Local Cattle • Cattle Appraisals - Processing Available • Ross McCall Office/Res. (519)887-9571 20 Maradon Drive Fax (519) 887-9171 Brussels Mobile(519) 357-5139 Brussels (519) 887-6507 ‘Uli&ft.ing, y,c.u, in tfbe [utuie! 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