A Farewell to Miss Day at Westside

Knowing this day would come since I was given the principal job in March, I tried my hardest to pretend I didn't have to say good bye to Westside Elementary. But the last week of school was here and I knew my replacement wouldn't want to share the office with me, so I started to pack. I tried to keep busy that whole week and not think about the fact that I would no longer see all my Westside friends everyday. It did help that a few of my good friends weren't returning either, but still the last day of school was going to be a sad day.

At noon the kids ran screaming through the halls out to the buses waiting to take them away for the summer. Then it was time for the closing faculty luncheon where we say good bye to all those not returning. We had a yummy lunch then started to give those funeral like presentations where someone says really nice things about you and then talks about how much they will miss you and everyone is crying.
We had 10 such presentations for teachers and other faculty members not returning. Each one was given a book where the staff had written their well wishes inside. Then it was my turn, the best for last. :) My friend and office next-door-neighbor, Teresa, read a poem she had written herself called, "It's About Time," that talked about time for different things in our lives and had given me a gorgeous clock to go with it. Then my dear friend and principal Sara talked about all the great things I did for her and for the school and gave me a present that would help me make critical decisions as a principal... a Magic 8 ball. The grand finale present was something they thought I would be able to use a lot in my new job. I unwrapped the gift to find a megaphone but then they wanted me to open the box to find that my new megaphone had been bedazzled and decorated Barnett Bulldog style! It was fabulous. Then I had to give my little farewell speech and of course tried to be funny so as not to shed too many tears. I just thanked them all for being supportive and for making it such a joy to come to work each and every day at Westside. I feel ready to be a principal because of my experiences at Westside and will never forget that!

So my office is all packed up, I had a yard sale and sold ALL my teacher stuff... guess the next thing I need to do is move into Barnett and figure out what the heck I do as a principal!

My good friend and awesome school psychologist, Effie and I with our good-bye books.

Super amazing teacher, Vicki and me! Vicki is going to stay home to be a mom so her good bye book is very appropriate for her. Mine is pretty cool too, Imagine A Day! Haha, get it?

Here is the creator of my bedazzled megaphone, Teresa! I know you are all jealous and want to use my super cool megaphone. She may go into business spicing up boring megaphones, watch for it!

Dear teacher friends who I will miss! You can't read it, but the sticker on my shirt says, "My principal thinks I'm great!" I'm cool like that.

More of my dear teacher friends. Aren't they just so cute?!

Sara and I with our National Geographic Bee Champion Medals. We are so awesome we won without even competing!

A final picture of the dream team, Principal Sara, Instructional Coach Eric, and Staff Developer Angela. We are showing off my cute shoes because shoes often don't make it in pictures. Don't we just look like fun?