Thank You all for coming to witness my going

Moments before going to the much anticipated retirement party yesterday, a friend(?) asked if I was nervous and added that I had nothing to worry about, as she was sure my speech was all set to go. SPEECH! What speech ???
So here's the speech that might have been:

June 15th, 2011 - Retirement Party @ Bedford High School
Thank You all for coming to witness my going:

What I have accomplished, lived through and lived despite of over these 8 years is vast and diverse. These are a few of my memories of change in Bedford:

PowerPoint was the Power Users first choice – Google Docs is now the collaborative choice of teachers and students, alike

Floppy disks were coveted - now replaced by space somewhere in a cloud

A laptop was issued only to MEET members – now many carts of them are available to whole classes of kids

There were no phones for teachers – kids and teachers can’t live without their personal cells these days

An online class was something only the Virtual High School in Concord could do – any teacher may write and offer an online class easily

A SMARTBoard was mistakenly referring to a woman with a good mind – these days it's something you tap, touch, project ideas on and engage your students with

I shared my office in the evenings with tiny furry visitors who enjoyed cleaning out my candy dish – I still share my candy dish with nightly visitors, but they now leave notes to thank me for the chocolate

A video was something you rented on the weekends – Videos are now made on a regular basis by many students for projects in their classes and to win awards in Washington

Data was a dude in Star Trek – now it’s what measures our successes and is studied using spreadsheets and charts by students and teachers alike

Renovation was a threat that became a 3 year reality only to be replaced by NEASC which has left us knowing that we A-R-E BHS.

So here’s a huge thank you and vote of appreciation to all my colleagues in this awesome high school who have embraced change along with me and graciously accepted that technology would forever challenge and reward them and do it at an ever accelerating pace. Keep the faith and remember – when you don’t know how to do something – ask a kid for help.

Sue

PS- the food, the flowers, and the especially the lace tablecloths were real and beautiful and all so lovingly done. It couldn't have been nicer. Thank you to those who honored the occasion with their care.