When I first visited GMS I spent half the day going around the school. At the time I was going to Gateway Preschool. The first thing I said to my mom when she came to pick me up was, “I want to go to THIS school.”
On my first actual day I met my first friend at GMS. Her name was Helen Bendix and she was in Miss Marron's class with me. We spent every moment at school together.
I don’t remember much about my first two years except that Meredith Vederman was my teacher for the second year and Dan Stearne would always come and try to steal my food at lunch.
My first day in elementary there was a new girl in class, I walked over to her and said, “My name’s Ella, what’s yours?” She said, “Nicole.” One thing led to another and Emily Red, Nicole Surman, Julia Fuchs, and I became the 4 musketeers. Helen was in Mrs. Hartnet’s class, but we still stayed close.
I remember that I learned a lot about math in the three years I was in Meg and Lois’ class: adding and subtracting on the bead frame, bead chain, and lots of other things to do with math (and beads).
I also remember that every year on your birthday Meg would have you walk around a huge candle as many times as how old you were to represent years and the world rotating around the sun.
Third year was so much fun. We were the elders of the class and we loved it. Meg had a rule called ask three before you ask me; that meant that younger children should ask three older kids before they asked Meg for help. We were the oldest so we got to help people who needed it and I liked that. Also, in third grade, Meredith Noll was the only 3rd year Student in Mrs. Hartnette’s class so all Meg’s 3rd years spent a lot of time with her and I made another friend.
After third year, my good friend, Julia, left and went to Gladwyne Elementary. Also, my best friend, Helen, moved to Germany! I was so scared that I would only know three people in my class. (It turns out that that meant I would know almost the whole class.)
My first day in fourth grade there were only five kids in my class. All girls. A new girl named Nia was in our class and we became friends at the start.
That year was great. We got to work on a lot of group projects since there were only five people. In the middle of the year David came back to GMS. Five girls, one boy.
Mrs. L. gave us an assignment to write a non-fiction story about something that had happened to us. I started a story about my new kitten, Gypsy. I liked the feeling that I got when I was writing. Writing gradually became my favorite thing to do in class. I entered “Almost An Outdoor Cat,” the story about my kitten, in the Junior Author Contest. I was so surprised when my mom told me the people from the contest had called and said I had won out of all the 4th grade stories.
In 5th year there were twelve people in my class. That year we started recycling and we named our classroom Upper El the Empire. We did lots of things to help the younger kids, like reading to them and painting their faces at the Fall Festival.
This year there were twenty-three people in my class! It was an all time high. I learned a lot about science from my new teacher, Mrs. Supriya, and a lot about sentence analysis.
One of the things I look forward to most of all every year is Camp Onas. I always have so much fun there. My favorite thing to do is the zip line and the rest of the high and low ropes course. Last week we rode to the Baltimore Aquarium in a white stretch limo for our 6th grade trip. We saw some pretty awesome things there. Thanks, Mr. and Mrs. Noll for all your contributions.
It’s hard to say goodbye to all this school has given me. I will always remember it.
I want to thank my family, my friends who I could not have gotten through school without, all my teachers, and especially Mrs. Edlind and Dr. Balamore who helped my parents decide that I was going to stay here for sixth grade, that was the best decision they ever made.