This time of year can be tough with all the goodbyes. This year, I am saying goodbye to the wonderful teacher who filled in for my teaching partner who lost her battle with cancer this year, my incredibly talented principal, my friendly and bubbly vice principal and my go-to person Behavioural Teaching Assistant. I know that honouring our time together and saying goodbye in a special way was really important to all of us.

The Arts and French department went off and brainstormed some ideas of how to honour our colleagues. Some ideas came really quickly and others took a bit more inspiration.

My hope with today’s blog is that if you are stuck for an idea on how to honour a colleague in the future, maybe some of our ceremonies and events from this week can act as an inspiration to you.

Saying goodbye to our staff:

This idea was really simple and was inspired by Eldorado Public School. At our final assembly this week, we had all of our staff lined up and had our leaving staff go through a high five train. We had music playing and the students cheering for everyone. It had such a great feeling of “Thank you!”.

Here is a picture of Eldorado Public School’s goodbye to staff.

eldorado

Honouring our principal and vice principal:

To honour our principal and vice principal leaving, we had the students and staff both prepare something. The grade four students took time to write a rap song for our vice principal. I walked them through the brainstorming of ideas and then let them create and write their own raps in groups. I took the best ideas from a variety of groups and melded them together into one performance piece. This is the piece we came up with:

Yo Vice, we miss you already, we m-m-m-m-m-m miss you.

You’re the best vice principal in the world and your leaving us behind noooo.

When students need ice,

You make them feel nice,

You’re very kind

you have a great mind

When we shout a yelp

you’ll be there to help.

You help us on the phone

When we call home.

Yo Vice, we miss you already, we m-m-m-m-m-m miss you.

You’re the best vice principal in the world and your leaving us behind noooo.

You wear fancy shoes

and believe we can’t lose.

You work with the staff

and give them a good laugh

When we start to cry,

you’ll always stand by

You’ll be in our hearts,

even when we’re apart.

Yo Vice, we miss you already, we m-m-m-m-m-m miss you.

You’re the best vice principal in the world and your leaving us behind noooo.

Yo vice, hope you have fun at your new school.

Yo vice, hope you have fun at your new school.

My students then began working on ideas for our principal and wrote a short story about all of her amazing qualities. They added all sorts of sound effects and ended the story with the song “Count on Me” by Bruno Mars. This is the story that they came up with:

“Once upon a time there was a wonderful, amazing, extraordinary principal named Miss. Robinson. ( do do do doooo) She brightened the days of every man, woman and child at her school Red Willow. (oooohhhh) She went far and wide (within the school) solving problems and making the school a better place. (ta da) She came to the rescue faster than the speed of light. (whoosh) Just like any other superhero she had awesome superpowers!!! She was organized…. caring…..
Helpful…… responsible… and positive. Red Willow knew that they could always “Count On” Miss. Robinson no matter what. “

Our staff, created a full fashion show for our fashionista vice principal. Our staff members wore sashes with her qualities on them and had a prepared script that described their outfits. It was an upbeat, fun and celebratory event.

fashion show 2

 

fashion show

 

Our principal was honoured through the presentation of a bouquet of flowers presented one flower at a time by the staff. About fifteen staff members spoke and either read a quote, sang a song or just spoke from the heart about the impact that our amazing principal had on our lives. It was a really simple and beautiful event.

flower ceremony2

 

flower ceremony

 

During the last day of school, I will have to say goodbye to some of the most important people in my world over the past couple of years. I hope that they enjoyed their send off as much as we did preparing it.

Have a wonderful summer and a much deserved break!

 

 

 

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