As we come to the end of another school year, I am amazed at how quickly the year has flown by. It seems as if I was just greeting my Second Graders for the first time, talking about "first day jitters" and all of the fun things we would be doing and learning together. I've heard it said, we tend to remember beginnings and endings the most. What happens in the middle is sometimes a blur. This would definitely be true of a school year and even truer of a 42-year teaching career! Time has flown by, some of it a blur, yet I remember my first 14 years of teaching in Windsor, CO, and the last 13 years here in D93 more than all of the rest.
What strikes me most about these memories are the people. The colleagues I've known and grown to love and the students, those precious little ones we're given to care for each year, are what matter the most.
Tom Gauchay, our former principal, used to ask every teacher candidate applying for a job, which was the most important thing: rigor, relevance, or relationship? For Tom, as well as many of us at Summit, it was always relationships. The lives that you touch and those that touch yours are what stay with you, what shape you. It's what ultimately makes the difference. It's what you will remember.
I can honestly say I have loved teaching. I love BEING a TEACHER. It's what I always dreamed of as a little girl. And I got to live that dream for 42 wonderful years! How fortunate and blessed I have been.
Thank you, Summit Hills, for being my happy place, my school family, the ending to an amazing career. Working alongside you has truly been the highlight of it all. I encourage you to strive to stay connected, to build relationships. It's what made Summit unique, so special in our early years. We have had a common purpose, to build a school that made a real difference in kids' lives.
We are united, connected, working together because we know we are only as strong as our connections with one another. It's a worthy goal to continue to strive for. It's what will continue to make Summit Hills great in the years to come. I will miss you all.
Kim Case
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