In Their Words

Today, following our school’s annual awards ceremony, I sat on the grass and watched students and teachers play soccer. I was too spent to move. I had kicked off my shoes, I had crossed my legs and was just soaking it all in. One student was playing soccer in flip-flops and a pink dress; some kids where eating tubes of frozen yogurt. Everyone was laughing. A mom of one of my senior students (and  an educational assistant in our school) came and sat next to me. I rested my head in my hands and we cried together, softly.

Though there’s a week of school yet, today at the annual awards ceremony, the school, the community, the students and I formally said farewell.

In the students’ words:

Dear Ms. Saas,

Thank you for being our teacher. Thank you for being one of my true friends, I look to you as a mother because I know her kindness will always be with me. Thank you for always believing in us, always giving us the opportunities to do things that we never imagined would be possible. Thank you for always making us smile, and hurting our brains. Thank you for always making us feel part of a family in our school. Thank you for bringing out your Darth Vader voice when we needed it.

Thank you for being a role model, an inspiration, someone who always listens, a best friend, a guide, the other, the call to action, the Yoda in our lives. Thank you for never giving up, for teaching us to respond with kindness and to always put the extr

a effort in. Thank you for sharing your stories, and for giving us a safe space to share ours.

We hope and know that you will have an amazing experience at John Chisholm, we promise to continue sharing what you have thought us, and we will share our stories. Thank you, you will not be forgotten.

~

Always, love Ms. Saas