Ladies, gentlemen… Hannah. My name is Danny Rogers. I have been here since I was three months old in the parent toddler program. But of course I can't remember that or Stepping Stones.

I can remember Mrs. Lanahan's, class which is surprising, because I can't remember what I had for breakfast. The first day I came into Mrs. Lanahan's class I cried, and then I cried some more. There I met Andrew and Dante. Mrs. Lanahan and the assistant teacher Kelly were very nice. Mrs. Lanahan would play the harp and teach us the Irish jig. It was very funny. We worked with the bead chains as much as possible. I think the pink tower is one of the coolest things here at GMS. We loved to stack it all the time, and we also loved putting puzzle maps together, too. Then when Kelly left, we had Laura, the new assistant, who brought in the class pet, a bird named Feathers.

In Mrs. Hartnett's class we made big math problems on the checkerboard and solved them, and every morning we would write in our journals. Mrs. Slattery always made division fun. In the third grade we did the Time Line of Man and had to choose a civilization to study. I did the Greeks. The science lessons always rocked and learning fractions was cool. Mrs. Slattery had some great Mother's Day gifts for us to make and learning about space was so much fun. Those two teachers taught me tons of what I learned here.

Then my last class: Upper El. Our teachers were Mrs. L. a.k.a. Cruel and Heartless and her colleague Mrs. Mehta. Mrs. Mehta's science lessons were cool and she let us do just about anything that had to do with science. We mixed baking soda and vinegar. The reaction went on the ceiling. Mrs. L gave history lessons every week and sometimes we would get a marker cap and send it around the circle to see if she would notice. The worst thing in Upper El was always the edit, where the teacher would write something and we would correct it. This year we made a motor powered car which worked very well and we made a Rube Goldberg machine that didn't work, unfortunately. Every day in Upper El we would laugh. I would be scared if a day went by and I didn't laugh.

We got a new teacher this year, Mr.Nord. He's half kid sometimes. He would make jokes about us and we would talk to him and joke around, but he would get mad at us sometimes because we were goofing off.

I would like to thank my other teachers, too, such as our gym teacher Mr. K., who taught me just about every thing about sports. Then there is Madame, our French and art teacher: she taught me a lot. Then Coco, probably the best music teacher, who taught me how to play the drums. Mrs. Hunter is our computer teacher. Before her, I knew absolutely nothing about computers. Then Mrs. Barclay, our librarian, who helped me with my research. I'd also like to thank Jimmy and Joe for being so nice and making me laugh and Mr.Coombs for being a great principal, and my reading teachers Ms. Haahr, Sally, Mrs. Johns, and Mrs. Harris. And last but not least all my friends: Andrew, Greg, Jordan, Michael, Jackson, Will, Nick, Bianca, Jaslyn, Reeta, Caroline, Natalie, and Wilson for being here with me. Gladwyne would have to be the best school I've been to… but of course it's the only school I've been to. There is something special about this school. When you walk through the doors something great happens and you're ready to learn. This school is like a second home to me and I can't believe that it's my time to go. I can remember seeing the speeches being given when I went into elementary, and I thought, "Wow, I will have to do that in six years." And here I am giving it now. I would like to thank you all for coming and my mom, dad, grandfather, and grandmothers, too.

Daniel will attend Friends' Central School