Sean's Speech at graduation from Gladwyne Montessori School

First of all, thank you for being here today. For me, being at GMS has been a great time. I have to say that it was the best school I've ever gone to, because I've never gone to any other school. Hard times and good times, GMS has been welcoming to me; no matter how I felt, or what I did, everyone was always nice to me.

Walking into Gladwyne Montessori for the first time at age 2, or crawling, I went to Stepping Stones where my teacher was Kim Auch. When my mother left me with this unfamiliar teacher, and lots of different kids, I can remember crying and crying and crying. When my mother picked me up, I would stop. Soon though, I felt at home at GMS, and I still do. Thank you, Kim, for being there for me in Stepping Stones. When I was three, I walked up the steps to Miss Lanahan's class. There, I had a wonderful time, learning things such as the sandpaper letters, reading, writing, and best of all, cleaning up after myself. Thanks to Miss Lanahan for teaching me all those things and more.

After those three years, I was placed in Mrs. Hartnett and Mrs. Slattery's class. I can remember the first day being scared. Soon Mrs. Hartnett and Mrs. Slattery were very nice, and I wasn't scared again. They taught me a great many things in three years. I learned about cavemen to counting money like I was a bank teller.

In those three years in Lower Elementary I had Mrs. Rosard as a music teacher. We had a musical in 2nd grade called Celebrate the Differences. Mrs. Rosard really taught me how to sing lots and lots of songs. Thank you Mrs. Rosard. After those three years in Lower Elementary, I went into Mr. Guss's class. He was very nice. He and Mrs. L taught me a great many things that year. From class parties on Halloween to being elected to the 4th grade senate, it was fun. Then, Mr. Guss resigned his job, in the middle of the year. Mrs. L took over the class then, with Dan Stearne as her assistant. That year Leslie was our Computer teacher; she taught me lots of things like all about Microsoft Front Page and how to work it. We had a new music teacher in fifth grade, Joe Auger. He was really nice, and he taught me how to make parodies of songs.

That year we also had a new computer teacher, Mrs. Hunter. She taught me all about Publisher, Excel, WebPages, and computer animation.

That year, we had a new nature teacher, too. Meagan was her name, and she taught me a lot about nature, and bird migrating during the winter. Thanks to Meagan for teaching me to love nature forever as it is.

After 5th grade, I came back full of experience, and supposed knowledge. I was wrong though, and Mrs. L put the write message into my head. "Stop fooling around, Sean."

In sixth grade, we had another new music teacher, Coco Bastien. She is tremendous with planning what and when things will happen. She taught me all that, plus more music theory, that patience is the key to good music, and improvisation is good, until it gets really bad. She also taught me to play many instruments that I'd never in a million years heard or imagined of.

In sixth grade, Mrs. L taught me things from Archimedes' personal life and history, to the American Civil War was very interesting. Mrs. L even got me some worksheet information folders about the Civil War. I have learned quite a lot from you, Mrs. L. Thank you so much, Mrs. L, for teaching me wonderful things. Mrs. L was also good at planning field trips. In fourth grade, she and Mr. Gus took us to Annapolis, Maryland, for an entire day. In fifth grade, Mrs. L and Mrs. Butterworth took us to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for a day, IN A LIMO! This year, Mrs. L took us to the to the Pennsylvania Farm Show with Mr. Corenswet, by bus. That was a really fun trip.

Throughout my elementary years, Mrs. Harris was my reading teacher. She taught me new vocabulary, organization, and better use of language. Thank you Mrs. Harris. Throughout sixth grade, every Friday at recess, we would play with La Casa. They were younger kids in primary who stayed late. I enjoyed playing with them very much. Michael, Nick, Jack, Jake, Jackson, and Maxwell were loads of fun. I was always glad to see William and Luke at buddy lunch. I would like to say, thank you to Madame Denise for teaching me French, Art, and to be a happy person, because, "Happy people make good people."

Thank you to Mrs. Torres and Mr. Ebmeyer for being great Principals and headmasters,

Thank you to Mr. K and Gary, for helping me in Physical Education and for after school sports, thank you to Meg and Lois just for being there for me even though I wasn't in your class at all.

Thank you to Mrs. Barclay for helping me pick out just the right book.

Thank you to Mr. Masters for helping to make me a fencer.

I can remember lots of good times at GMS, like winning the Geography Bee's in fifth and sixth grades. I remember performing many different musicals and plays, from the opera to Celebrate the Differences in Lower Elementary, I can remember our hit play in fourth grade, with Evil Canevil being really mean, I can remember the Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's court. I can remember doing our The Fantastic Formula, and Le Theatre Du Soleil.

Gladwyne Montessori School has helped me a lot. Next year I will be going to Akiba Hebrew Academy. I hope that it is as good as GMS.