And that's a wrap.

Bringing your career to a close after 35 years is no easy feat. Not surprisingly I suppose, the last few days, weeks and months were a conglomeration of memories, emotions, thoughts of relationships, special events and little moments of joy which swam around in my head incessantly. Emotional meltdowns were unpredictable and frequent. Although all of this might make it sound otherwise, I really am totally ready to retire! No doubts. No indecision. But undeniable heart swell with my lifetime of teaching memories.

So, how to spend the last few days??
Well, I've been a 'theme dresser' most of my teaching years. Because of that, I have literally dozens of T-shirts (not to mention full-out costumes) representing schools, events, organizations and ideals from over the years. I decided that I would wear a different special T-shirt every day for the month of June. It was fun. I loved picking them out each day and reflecting on their meaning to me. Some of them were even used as decor at my retirement gig!

AFTER!!

BEFORE :)

Of course, I did my share of packing during the last couple of weeks. No small task for any teacher, but you'd think with a cubicle and not a classroom, it might be easier. My cubicle, however, isn't like many others at the Ed Centre, as you can see in the 'before' pic. Packing it up really wasn't that hard, but it was a shocking transformation and seeing it emptied out ended up being harder for my office-mates than it was for me!
During June, I had a wonderful opportunity to accompany Meadowlane's choir for a special event honouring their retiring accompanist. Their music teacher, Kristie Stanzel, friend and ETFO colleague, needed someone at the last minute and I figured it would be quite a fitting thing for me to do. The fact that I taught at Meadowlane in the 90s and that this woman had also accompanied my choirs when I was there made this a particularly poignant event. So, I spent my very last day at Meadowlane PS, accompanying their lovely little choir. It was the perfect thing to do on my last official teaching day!

The last actual day of the school year was a PD day. We started the day in style with a scrumptious breakfast that Heidi brought in. It was actually the end of a week of yummy treats - both edible and drinkable :) Thanks to my co-workers for such deliciousness!
They also completely spoiled me with an Apple Store gift certificate! Their generosity (and Cindy's special good-bye speech) was quite overwhelming. I have been very lucky to work with such wonderful people. I'll miss them :(

We might have finished the work day a little early and headed out to Moxie's for lunch. I had never been there before - what a beautiful place! I had a Margarita, grilled salmon salad, and was treated to a special dessert to finish up. Yum!!

Trish was able to come for lunch too, which was pretty wonderful. When it was all over, we had a round of good-bye hugs, jumped in the car, did a little shopping at Canadian Tire, and headed home for a much anticipated and well needed nap.

And that was that.

The Rainbow Extravaganza

Well, I guess you could say this was the biggie! And start to finish, what a beautifully colorful, fun and happy night it was! I am so grateful to the party-planning team headed by Trish and including Cathie, Dana, Amanda, Cindy, Becky, Heidi, Elke, Elaine, Jeff B, Jeff P, Ryan, Karen, Ann, Dan and Luke, as well as quite a few others who helped with little and big things in the moment as the evening went on! I really had the time of my life and am so thankful to all of you! I could not have asked for anything more - it was perfect!

I was thrilled that we were able to hold the party at the ETFO Office. The transformation of the meeting room to rainbow paradise was brilliant! Rainbow tablecloths, displays, flowers, name-tags, T-shirts, signs, a welcome area complete with a rainbow dress-up photo booth, spectacular food table and the most amazing cake EVER!! What a setting for a retirement party!
We started with about an hour of mingling time. It was wonderful to have my whole family there and greet so many friends and colleagues from recent and not-so-recent days of teaching! Because everyone was adorned with a rainbow lei as they came in, the room was positively bursting with colour as we all enjoyed the snacks and some time to catch up.
About 5, Trish brought everyone together for a few 'mini-speeches', as they were called. Jennifer Kneeshaw, Matthew, Cathie & Dana and Jeff Pelich spoke. Their words were touching, funny, sincere, entertaining, and every word meant so much to me. They each brought a very personal perspective of our work and time together and I was really touched. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!
I spoke last, mostly to express my gratitude to family, friends and colleagues, with a few stories thrown in. I recall a few tears, but I felt so loved and supported throughout, it really didn't matter!

After the 'office party', a group of us went out for dinner at the Raintree Cafe! It was perfect for our celebration and I'm so glad we had that opportunity for a little relaxed fun after the big event. Yummy food and lots of laughs!

All in all, it was a most memorable occasion - I will never forget it. Every person there was very special to me and I was grateful and humbled to have the opportunity to spend the evening together and thank all of you for being part of my career. Rainbow Extravaganza was a perfect end to the Retirement Party Circuit!

Party #2 - The ETFO Dinner

What a night! And ETFO really knows how to do it! Over 800 guests and meals served, wine on every table to celebrate the paying off of the ETFO office mortgage, wonderful live music provided by everyone's favorite duo - Darrell and Rod, recognition of 85 retirees, awards, speeches, dancing - what an amazing evening! I invited Mum to join us - it's not every day your daughter retires!
Also, for me, this really was a once in a lifetime night. A couple of weeks before, I was asked to deliver the speech on behalf of retirees - sort of a 'valedictorian' style thing. I was thrilled and honoured to be asked. In previous years, I have always looked forward to this speech. The stories and reflections shared by the invited speaker have so sincerely represented the voice of those who have spent their lives in this profession. I have to confess that I have imagined myself doing this, however, in spite of my fantasies, I completely underestimated the weight of this responsibility as I wrote, rewrote, edited, and in all other ways prepared during the days ahead. My emotions swung wildly from total overwhelm to joyous excitement.
In the writing process, I identified a few goals for myself: I wanted each retiree to feel that I expressed some of what they were feeling, I wanted to include some humour, possibly a little sentimentality, to focus on some issues that are significant in education today, and possibly to challenge some thinking in areas of equity and 21st century teaching. Of
course I had to include a mention of social media use, and I even decided to write into my speech an opportunity for me to take a mid-speech selfie. The manic face you see here >>
is a pretty good reflection of my mood in the moment!
The best word I can use to describe what it felt like that night to speak to the crowd of 800 is exhilarating. I loved every minute of it! The audience was so receptive - I felt like I was speaking to a room of friends! That's pretty unbelievable when you think of it. What an experience - I am so lucky! In case you're interested, here is a link to my speech, which was also shared with the retirees following the evening.
Another incredible surprise of the night was receiving the 'President's Award' for Leadership from President Greg Weiler. Surprised, honoured and overwhelmed hardly begin to express how I felt. WOW.


One of my true joys of the evening was watching Trish's face throughout everything that went on - her looks of support, encouragement, joy and love cannot really be described in words. I know I wasn't easy to live with in the days leading up to this night (#understatement) and I can't thank her enough for listening and cheering and sharing all of this with me in such a selfless and sincere way. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

The Retirement Party Circuit Begins!

On Tuesday, June the 9th, Trish and I attended the board's dinner for retiring staff and guests,  held at the Holiday Inn in Kitchener. It was a big event, honouring 180 retirees from all different positions within the WRDSB. I really liked the mix of the crowd - it's not often that all the various parties involved in our students' education come together. Too bad it takes til you retire.
Many of the trustees attended, being that they were our hosts, and greeted us with corsages and warm messages of congratulations as we arrived. For most of us, it was the first in a string of retirement gigs, so there was an air of excitement and celebration in the air. We were looking forward to being treated to dinner, receiving our gifts, and generally being recognized for our full and varied careers within the board.
All was going well until our MC for the evening, our board chairperson, decided to, well, speak. She was irreverent to say the least, and downright rude if you want the blunt version. Names were mispronounced, in-jokes were shared ... it was kind of unbelievable. There were mutterings around the room that she had enjoyed a little too much wine with dinner. Perhaps. But, when the past chair took over the mic, it didn't improve much. Fewer gaffs maybe, but they were replaced by one-liners about him (dumb bald jokes, for example), rather than lovely comments about the retirees. Even the program was flawed. My name was the only thing they got right; my job, department and years of experience were all incorrect. The whole thing lacked the respect that an event such as this should have, and that retiring employees deserve. Although we laughed at it at the time (what else can you do?), many of us, including me, left feeling a little deflated. The gift was nice - a lovely Bulova mantel clock. A nice souvenir of a pretty weird start to the retirement party circuit.