Saturday, June 17, 2006

GOOD-BYE CATHERINE

Yesterday was the last day of school and it was also Catherines last day of teaching at our school and here in the United States. She and her husband have accepted a position teaching international business people's children in an American school in China! They leave for an orientation in New York this week for two weeks and then leave for China the end of July with a start date of August 18.

Yesterday was very hard for everyone saying goodbye. The students and their parents were wonderful and Catherine got some very practical gift cards. The last day of school went so smoothly and it was good for the final time.

Today was a luncheon in her honor which was very nice. There was no crying today, just a good time of sharing and laughing.

Here are some photos I took of the event. In the top picture, Catherine is the one in the middle. I am on the left and the other First Grade Aide and my partner Kathy is on the right.

This is Joyce and Sue. They helped with putting all the food together, setting the tables and clearing up and washing the dishes.


This is Catherine with "Grandpa" Dick. He is the main maintance man at the school and everyone just loves him.
This is another teacher, Lisa, and her daughter Stephanie who had Catherine as her teacher when she was in elementary school
Here is a mother/daughter teaching team. Sandy on the left teaches one of the kindergarten classes and Tracy on the right teaches one of the fourth grade classes.
The gentleman on the left is Tom our music teacher. He writes his own music and wrote a special song which he performed just for Catherine. The woman in the back is a very active parent at our school and she helps in the athletic department. The young woman on the right is our band director.
Here Catherine is pointing out to Stephanie where she will be living in China.
This is our administrator Pat with his wife
One of our Third Grade teachers, Karen with her son Jonathan who also had Catherine as a teacher when he was at our school.
Roy is the one who planned this whole event and Catherine was given flowers.

It was a lovely event and a good chance to say good-bye in a relaxed, casual manner.

I will miss Catherine so much!

(I had two more pictures, one of the cake and one of Catherine with her husband, but I am not able to get them on the blog. It tells me they have successfully published but they do not show up. Sorry about that)