Teacher Recognition Luncheon

I was greatly honored this morning/afternoon to attend a luncheon at Friendship Village to recognize  retired teachers; residents were given the opportunity to invite other retired teacher friends, and Mom wasn't shy about it.  She invited 5 friends (and me).  It was, of course, a great lunch, but also a very nice program.

Our hostess, and Director of Marketing, Pam Hall.

Our place settings included an apple for the teacher as well as the note paper , and an apple shaped calculator (w/ a bite taken out of it) in the box!  Very cute.

A very tasty spinach salad w/ mandarin oranges and strawberries.  I believe the dressing might have been a raspberry vinaigrette.  Sliced almonds for added crunch.  YUM.

Freshly sauteed veggies, rice pilaf, and chicken in a light cream sauce with mushrooms.  Very tasty and filling.

Dessert - not one, but FOUR!  I was so full I only tasted from each of them, and wanted to be pushed back to Mom's room in a wheel chair.

Chef Ben Cyr, who is an educator at heart, came out to thank all of the teachers for their years of hard work, and to express his particular appreciation for the work teachers do.

Two of the servers for the luncheon who will be starting college in the fall in Teacher Education!  They were very absorbed with the speakers.

There were two speakers from the local Northmont School District.  The first speaker presented the use of technology being used regularly in their school, and how the kids seem to eat it up.  She also talked about how none of the current technology was available when she started teaching 20 years ago, so she's had some adjusting to do.  The second speaker was a curriculum specialist who had a few more years experience to draw from.  She talked about some of the "technology" of our times - mimeographs, dittos, then moving on to the copiers and sharing that soon it will all be a paperless classroom (seems kind of odd to me, though).  Some of the retired teachers shared some of the funny stories from their years of teaching, including the one where the teacher asked "someone" to flip off the fan because it was making too much noise, so the whole classroom turned to the fan and flipped it off.  The nice conclusion was that students are basically the same; there are good ones, there are ones that don't really want to be there, but they are kids and they can all learn and grow with the right encouragement.  That hasn't changed since teaching began.

FYI, none of the people pictured are residents of Friendship Village; there are privacy issues and their photos cannot be displayed w/out their permission.  The two people you can see (other than Pam and Chef and the servers) are friends of Mom's, and one was my high school geometry teacher. They're fair game as far as I'm concerned!

It was a very nice couple of hours, and I hope it's something they do annually, even if the same people show up year after year.  They are still valued people who have a lot to offer, and are deserving of the recognition; God knows they probably didn't get a whole lot of positive recognition while they were teaching.

Hat's off to you, retired ladies and gentlemen of the teaching profession.  You shaped our lives for the better, and we are indebted to you.