THE END IS NEAR
So the end is near and we are entering into our final official blog, we will post pictures from graduation. As those of you who have followed our journey know we love to take photos.
Every week Thursday has come around and we laugh over what we are going to write to keep you all entertained. Hopefully we have painted an interesting and fun picture of life at Gould.
So in the words of Frank Sinatra, we felt that the words from My Way sum up the past and what will be our Graduates future. Please read the lyrics..........

And now, the end is near,
And so I face the final curtain.








My friends, I'll say it clear;








I'll state my case of which I'm certain.

I've lived a life that's full -And more, much more than this,
I did it my way.

Regrets? I've had a few,
But then again, too few to mention.
I did what I had to do
And saw it through without exemption.








Yes, there were times, I'm sure you knew,

When I bit off more than I could chew,
But through it all, when there was doubt,
I ate it up and spit it out.








I faced it all and I stood tall
And did it my way.

Thanks for the 'seasons of love'As I sit here tonight on a beautiful spring evening, the tent and flags from many countries are up, rooms are being packed up and families are starting to arrive in town for graduation. Mary Buckman and her colleagues have the campus looking absolutely beautiful. And the "goodbyes" have already started.

Tonight I feel a lot like I would assume that many of our seniors feel. There is the excitement of the graduation and a real sense of accomplishment. "We made it." Today, when I entered my last grade and comment after a marathon exam correcting session, I felt like whooping just like kids have been as they come out of final exams.

But then it hit me that I had entered the last grade. Class is done. We won't be going at it again on Monday. Perhaps I should take one more look at the essays. I love my class. In the same way that I envision that many of our seniors may be, I questioned whether I am ready to leave Gould.

The Gould community is an amazing place, a school where kids of all different backgrounds come together from all over the world to learn and grow together. As I sit here thinking about what to write, I have the soundtrack from Rent playing through my head:


Gould is a place that is about 'love'. There is love for learning, and love for teaching, and love for competing, and love of the arts, and love for the environment, and love for life. There is a love of fun! There is romantic love and there is tough love! But most importantly, there is genuine love for each other in this place.

Love among friends and the caring for each other is what makes this a tough place to think about leaving. There is a piece of me that just wants to quietly disappear on Saturday afternoon so that I don't have to say too many goodbyes.

But first it is time for each of us as Ms. Wilkerson reminded us earlier in the week to "commence". We will celebrate the year with all of our friends for the next couple of days, and then it is time to take our love and move on to hopefully bring that sense of caring to our next communities.

As I told the student body and faculty last Sunday night, I leave reluctantly but having received an incredible education and forever appreciative for having been part of this loving community. Over the last 5 and a half years, I have learned as much about myself and the world as I have in any other time of my life. As I move on, I do so confident that I am well prepared for the next phase of my career and my education. I hope that our seniors share this sense of confidence.

So "thank you". Thank you to all the students and teachers who I have had the privilege of working with and learning from. Thank you to Pat, my partner perpetually at the other end of the cell phone for the last couple of years. (Pat's husband Neil and my wife Marily have been incredibly patient!) Thank you to the Board for all that they do for Gould. Thank you to Dan and Kathy for your support, your patience and for your mentoring. Thank you to Marily, Alex and Sara for indulging me this passion. Thank you Gould.

With that I hang up my proverbial Glogging pencil before Zack breaks it and the fingers that hold it!

Best wishes always,

John

Commencement!開始, der Beginn, 시작; 졸업식, comienzo, 開始, 开

I was struck with the word Commencement this weekend. As we head toward our own commencement ceremonies I find myself again thinking of graduation as a beginning; a commencement.

This weekend I watched as 80 medical students at Brown became physicians. My brother was one of the students. He’s completed 4 years of medical school, 2 years of a post-baccalaureate program (to fulfill requirements), 4 years of college, 4 years of high school, 4 years of middle school, and 6 years of primary school. That’s 24 years! There he was, sitting in a pew with a diploma in his hand, at the beginning of his journey. He’ll be a resident for several more years, and he’ll spend the rest of his lifetime continuing to learn about and practice the art and science of medicine.

I was struck by the fact that his graduation isn’t a point of termination- it is a point of launch.

Gould’s class of 2008 is finishing high school this weekend. None of the students is stopping though. I often find myself thinking in images- I don’t know how well this will translate through words, but imagine blocks, like a child’s toys. The blocks represent the intellectual, social, spiritual growth of each student. Through high school they begin to construct a tower. They’re learning factual information, but more importantly they’re learning how to learn. They’re learning to trust their own thoughts while forming opinions. Through the process the block tower is built tall and narrow at times, then it falls. It’s built wide and solid at times. By the time our students walk across the stage at their commencement ceremony, their blocks aren’t stacked tall like a swaying skyscraper- they’re packed close, making a solid base for the next layer of growth. It may sound cliché, but we’re all somewhere in our journey, and Gould’s class of 2008 will be celebrating a solid layer of their tower. Now they’re ready to launch… again.

But first they have a whole lot more school crammed into a week!

Until next week?

-Tracey

ps- the turkeys are doing just fine! Most are trying out their rapidly growing wing feathers!

My Last Glog PostWHAT A WEEK! This week has been the busiest week I have ever had at Gould, but a lot of great was in that. All my classes have final projects and loads of work due before school ends: In English we are each writing a short story that we are going to read aloud, in Spanish I had to write an eight page paper about a play we read called La Casa de Bernarda Alba, In Gov. I am writing a section on comparative government with South Africa, in painting I have to paint the same picture at three different times of day, and in Calculus I am creating our own amusement park ride. So this amount of work would normally be enough to keep me busy, but something fun has been happening during all the other times too.
On Wednesday night, Motor Booty came and funked up the campus with their jive tunes and groovy get-ups. On Thursday night we had Senior Auction, which is a fund raising event in which seniors are auctioned off, and they can do favors to their buyer the next day. I was bought by Annie "New Horse" Kantelis and she didn't make me do anything too bad, except sing some song from High School Musical. Then on Friday night was Senior Gala, which was an absolutely amazing meal for all the seniors where we got to meet some alumni and basically got accepted into alumni status.
It was alumni weekend this weekend, so there were so many people around, including brothers and friends, and just all around people I enjoy seeing. This was no normal alumni weekend though, for we played the alumni lacrosse game, which is a lot of fun. A tradition at the alumni game is to announce the captains for next year, so Jonathon "Casheezi" Parsons, Adrian "Happy Spot' Bouthot, and I handed down the torch to next years captains, Max "Maxi" Littlefield, Joe "Choo Choo" Johnson, and Scoty "Scooter" Baribeau. But the game was a lot of fun, and I got to play middie in the second half, which was great.
As I recap this past week, I realize that this is my last glog posting ever, for I am off to Tufts next year and it would be hard to write a glog from there. So I should really recap this year, and what a great year it has been. When you start a school year in the fall, your brain doesn't really even comprehend the end of the year, but it really goes by faster than you think. One of my favorite things to do is "remember whens", and this game is really easy, all you do is state one of your favorite memories of whatever your almost done with (we do this at the summer camp I work at a lot). So here is a my list of "remember whens". . .
Remeber when...
-We had that intense double elimination dodge ball tournament in the field house.
- we had Halloween, the hilarious costumes and great dance.
- We danced like dancers during snowball.
- winter carnival was soo intense that some people even threw up.
- we climbed Tumbledown for Mountain Day
- We beat Proctor in Lacrosse by a nail biting one goal.
- Girls tennis went undefeated! I think thats a true statement.
- Kelly, Shannon and Abbie presented their four point presentation. and then again. and then again.
- Max and Joe randomly started singing that song "L is for the way I look at you"
- Everybody grew a beard for the amazing beard contest.
- All the new kids used to be actually new.
- I never thought that graduation would actually come.
But now graduation is less than a week away, and it will definitely be bittersweet. It is one of those things that is such a big and impacting events, that it hasn't hit me yet that I am actually graduating. But we still have a great week ahead of us with a ton of great assemblies, Senior retreat, Bacheloreote (that is spelled so wrong), the Spring concert, The End, and then graduation. Sadly, I won't be able to write about any of these things, because I will be a whole day as a High School Graduate by then, so you'll have to take my word that they are going to be amazing. It has been great to try and give all you readers a little peak at Gould and my interaction and appreciation of it. Thanks for reading all year, and keep staying in touch with Gould. Donovan out.

Can Gould Dance...??Yeah we can........!
The story begins at The Gould Auction where one of the items is "Headmaster for the Day"
Mr Kunkle is usually very nervous about this and bids frantically as long as he can...!
This years winning bidder was Les Otten.
And as a treat Les arranged for the band Motor Booty Affair to play at Gould on Weds night.

Enjoy the pics.

Hedden and DC looking good



Thanks go to Les, Pat Donovan and all the faculty and students that rallied together at last minute to build stages and clean up.


Our very own Ben Clotten took to the stage and played a little air guitar.....

Yes that is what a Glogger looks like ...! And the big question is answered. Gorillas DO love bananas...!