Before I came here, I went to public school. When I entered 1st grade, I wasn't used to such a big school, but I got used to it. In 2nd grade, I learned a lot and had fun. I remember when we had indoor recess, everybody used to always want to play word munchers. That was also the year I became the ga-ga champ. In 3rd grade, I wasn't learning very much. At that point, I pretty much hated school. I was scared to go out to recess because there were "gangs" of bullies. My only comfort was that I knew that I wasn't going to be there in 4th grade.
Then, one day, I visited GMS. I loved it! I remember doing pegboards, cubing, and somebody telling me about salt maps during my visit. It was so interesting. I knew GMS was one of my choices for a new school. I sent in an application and hoped for the best. The day I found out I was accepted to GMS, I ran and jumped around the house like I was crazy, saying "Woo hoo! I got accepted to Gladwyne Montessori! Woo hoo! Yeah!"
The first day of 4th grade, I remember getting introduced to Mr. Guss and Mrs. L., and hanging out with Gardner Butterworth. Mr. Guss was a good teacher. Then, when I came back from holiday vacation, he had to leave. Mrs. L. took over and Dan was her assistant. The next year, it was just Mrs. L. and 7 kids. We had so much fun and learned a lot that year. I remember the bottle rocket experiment, and how it took us about an hour instead of five minutes to set it up, the time Gardner ate a bug in nature class, and the time the class got a tomato plant. I suggested naming it Potato and Gardner called it Pataato for the rest of the year, or the time we looked at dead wasps from Sean's house under the big-screen microscope. Of course, I'll always remember the trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in a limo with a TV on which we watched Judge Mills-Lane.
Then 6th grade came. I used to not be very good at math, but now, I am good at it. I learned a lot of things in 6th grade, including how annoying it is to get your pencil stolen by Charlie or Sean, but this year was unlike the others because of some major changes: I recognized the importance of homework and the fact that I need to learn to get a good job later on in life. I also recognized that I am actually leaving the school.
It is going to be different next year, but at least I'm prepared. I'm giving the award of special thanks to my family for their support, Mrs. L. for teaching me so much of what I know, Joe Auger for teaching me how to play my first guitar chords, and my friends for, well, for being friends. Additional thanks goes to Mr. Ebmeyer for being a great headmaster, Coco for helping us with our musical talents, Madame Denise for teaching me how to create "works of art" and "speak" French, Mrs. Harris for helping me with my vocabulary and vocabulary usage, Mr. K. for helping me with my athletic skills, especially baseball, Battle Master for teaching me how to fence, Mrs. Hunter for expanding my knowledge of computer technology, Dan for helping out in fourth grade, Mrs. Rosard for teaching me music, Mr. Guss for those challenging, 6th grade spelling tests, Mrs. Barclay for having such a big library with great books, Leslie for teaching me how to make my first web page, Megan for teaching me how much fun nature can be, Luke Cappellano for the great buddy-lunches, and of course, the upper elementary class of 2001-2002.
I am going to Akiba Hebrew next year, and it is very hard to get into. Think of how much I've learned here and how much it's paid off! I'm going to really miss going to this school. Thanks for all of those great times and the large amount of knowledge I've gained in my 3 years being here.
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