Goodbye and thank you
EDITOR: This June marks the end of my 34th year of teaching, and it will mark the beginning of my retirement from education.
I told my students through grateful tears, “Teaching has been the most perfect profession for me. How lucky and blessed I have been, to have spent a lifetime of work surrounded by young people who are discovering their voices, carving their places in the world and determining how they will find meaning in their lives.”
It’s mind-boggling to think that I have graded hundreds of thousands of essays and papers and taught more than 3,500 students, two generations worth; I have attended 300 faculty meetings, sat on at least 100 committees, served many terms as union rep and attended 200 association meetings, went on strike once, and picketed more than a dozen professional/educational injustices locally, at the state level and nationally.
I attended 120-plus student study team meetings and hundreds of professional learning committee meetings, piloted 12 curriculum changes, including a shift to technology integration. I procured funding and chartered a continuation program for at-risk youth affectionately named TLC — The Learning Center, taught 4-12 grades including six content areas and advised 15 student clubs and organizations.
I attended promotions, graduations, retirement functions and a plethora of field trips and day-aways. I gladly attended my student-family celebrations: weddings, quinceaneras, funerals, college graduations, birthdays and coming-out parties. I even attended the birth of a former student’s baby, and was surprised when asked to film it.
Rewards were gifted to me daily. I experienced my greatest joy in the faces of the students I have taught, and reciprocally, who taught me. They wrote poetry, crafted stories, discovered and experienced that words have power. I taught with hundreds of staff, many with special gifts, who inspired and shaped me to be a better person and teacher.
Most proudly, I ferociously advocated for every child in my care, and housed, nurtured, helped raise and supported many children from the district who were not my own, but who owned my heart. My passion for teaching burned brightly, and now, it is time to pass the proverbial torch.
To parents: Thank you for the years of support, for allowing me to love your children while I taught them, for welcoming me into your homes and your lives, and for accepting me for the person that I am — unconventional and loud, passionate and, well, me.
“Uplift, inspire, motivate,” my 34-year classroom creed reads. It is now time to tackle retirement. Thank you, from the bottom of my overflowing-with-love heart.
Jackie Rose
Cloverdale
Thank you, Cloverdale
EDITOR: As many of you have seen over the past several months, the Cloverdale Chamber of Commerce has been working 24/7 in promoting Cloverdale locally as well as throughout the Bay Area and beyond. It feels good when various merchants and services thank the chamber, as their businesses have been full of people, both local and from out of the area.
With all of this attention placed on the new and updated look of Cloverdale, the chamber board made the decision to update the look of our downtown facility this past year.
Our vision was grand, however once the remodel was complete, we could not believe our eyes. It was kind of like one of those TV shows where the owner goes away for a week and when they come back, there is a whole new house from top to bottom. In our wildest dreams we never imagined that our little space would be a showcase for the community of Cloverdale.
The building owners, Doug and Lois Dilley shared the chamber’s vision and all we can say is thank you. They spent countless hours and hard-earned money to completely remodel our space. Pat and Margaret Fitzgerald from Fitzgerald’s Painting donated their labor to put the finishing touches on the new interior and completely repainted it from top to bottom.
We are proud of our new space and encourage the community to stop by and visit the new Cloverdale Chamber of Commerce located next to city hall at 126 N. Cloverdale Blvd.
The Cloverdale Chamber of Commerce
Board of Directors
