Greensboro Grimsley High

On June 9 I sat on stage during the seventh graduation at Grimsley High School that I have attended.  I had an exceptional view of students as they walked across the stage and received their high school diplomas.  As these students that I taught in a variety of classes walked across the stage, I felt a little like I was graduating with them.  I felt the same mixed feelings of excitement and fear of the unknown that many of them experienced Sunday night.

Grimsley High School has really been a home to me.  After teaching for a semester at Rockingham County Middle School, I found myself as a very new lateral entry teacher at Grimsley High School.  When I first arrived, we were a school in transition.  We found ourselves precariously placed on the edge of a tradition of academic excellence but also with the unknown before us due to redistricting within our county and due to administrative changes.  During my first two years at Grimsley High School, I served under four different principals, and I witnessed firsthand many new teachers leave our school and the profession because the struggles seemed too difficult to overcome.  The edge of the cliff of change seemed too dangerous, too frightening, and too steep. 

For those of us who stayed, we formed a sense of community.  The teachers rallied together and offered support and social opportunities both inside and outside of school.  We informally collaborated across departments and formally collaborated within Professional Learning Communities to reach out to all of our students.  Slowly we began to build a bridge over that chasm below the cliff and began to find a way to give our diverse, varied population the best possible education that we could.  In the end through our construction and reaction to these changes, we formed a community of educators, students, parents, and alumni.

As I sat on the stage at graduation and saw such a diverse group of students graduate, I felt proud to call Grimsley my home.  I knew that I will always be a Grimsley Whirlie (even though no one really understands what a Whirlie is unless you’ve been there…a Whirlie is a state of being).  Like the students graduating that night, I knew that this year would mark the end of my current journey at Grimsley High School as I step out into the unknown and travel the state as North Carolina’s Teacher of the Year.  Like them, I was sad to leave my home, but excited to venture into the future.  Perhaps, most importantly, as I looked out at the students, parents, and coworkers in the Greensboro Coliseum, I realized the most important concept of home: it is a place where you can always return, whether in your heart or in person. 

Tears filled my eyes as I sang the Grimsley Alma Mater for the umpteenth time since I arrived at Grimsley.  However, this time the words rang truer than they ever have before:

            All hail to thee,

            Our Alma Mater strong.

            We’ll pledge our faith and love and loyalty,

            Greensboro Grimsley High.

Thank you Grimsley High School for being such an important part of my life, and know that you will always be my home. 

For the next year, my home will broaden to include all of North Carolina, and like our graduates, I step off the stage into the world beyond, eagerly awaiting what the future will have in store for this Whirlie.