Retirement · A coworker · Short · about a minute
Short Retirement Toast for a Teacher (About 1 Minute)
A fellow teacher giving the last toast at an end-of-year staff send-off for a third grade teacher, after the principal had already covered her career.
Given by Nan, who taught across the hall. 158 words. The names are made up.
The toast
I taught across the hall from Millie for sixteen years, so I'll just tell you about the jar.
On the windowsill in room 12 there's a glass jar of buttons. Every color. When one of Millie's third graders reads their first whole chapter book on their own, they get to pick a button and take it home. That's the whole prize. A button. Thirty-one years of kids have walked down that hall holding one up like a gold medal. I've seen kids sew them onto backpacks. One boy kept his in his cheek through an entire assembly, which Millie handled better than I would have.
Some of those kids are teaching in this building now. Two of them told me this week they still have theirs.
Millie says the jar stays with the room. Whoever moves in next fall gets it, and a note.
So raise whatever you've got, everybody. To Millie, and every button that went home.
Why it works: The principal had the years and the numbers, so this toast takes one object and one moment instead. The button jar is something every teacher in the room had seen, and the toast hands it back to her.
Make it yours
Borrow the shape, not the lines. Put your own people, your own year and your own detail in each spot, or answer a few questions and get a first draft built from them.