Congratulations class of 2009! I love my job and am reminded why each year during graduation. If you don't know where I work, I work at Guilford Day School, which is a small private school for students with learning differences and attention deficit disorders (grades 1-12). Many of the 17 who graduated this year were 6th graders when I started teaching at GDS. I taught them PE, then art, then math, and had many of them as advisees in the 8th grade. This is Win, who I also tutored in math for many years. He started in 6th grade such a disorganizational mess that he rarely made it to class with anything he needed. He has come such a long way not only academically (especially in math and English), but in all aspects of his life. He worked very hard to get where he is, and is off to college in the fall. (some of you may remember Win from the YouTube video where he is jamming out at MerleFest)
Each senior is given the option to speak at graduation. This year, there were only 3, but all were very moving. One young man came to Guilford Day "kicking and screaming" in the 10th grade but really turned things around. Another senior would never make eye contact with his teachers and would mostly speak in grunts when I taught him in middle school. He gave a very long speech about the life changes he had experienced while at Guilford Day, including losing 60 pounds, thanks to the help of his PE teacher. Win also spoke about how far he had come over the years. I think graduations are always happy and inspirational events, but possibly nowhere more so than Guilford Day. Each of the parents who came up on stage with their graduate had tears in their eyes. I love my job.
Each senior is given the option to speak at graduation. This year, there were only 3, but all were very moving. One young man came to Guilford Day "kicking and screaming" in the 10th grade but really turned things around. Another senior would never make eye contact with his teachers and would mostly speak in grunts when I taught him in middle school. He gave a very long speech about the life changes he had experienced while at Guilford Day, including losing 60 pounds, thanks to the help of his PE teacher. Win also spoke about how far he had come over the years. I think graduations are always happy and inspirational events, but possibly nowhere more so than Guilford Day. Each of the parents who came up on stage with their graduate had tears in their eyes. I love my job.
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