Farewell Mr Potter
Sadly we have had to say goodbye to our beloved sports teacher Mr Trevor Potter. He has decided the time was right to retire.
Many years ago, not long after I began working at Grange, Trevor and I decided to team up together with our respective classes and created what we affectionately called The Eisenpot Unit. We had a great time establishing lots of collaborative practices, many routines and practices which I maintain today, had their beginnings in the Unit.
Now anyone who knows Trevor, knows he likes to talk, that was indeed the case way back then, so to curb his monologues, I would at times perk my own voice up and over do the patronising singsong, happy voice. This irritated him, but achieved our objective in stopping him, so we could get on with things. So when we were asked to send a video message to Trevor, I knew exactly what memorable thing we could do.
Check out our message.. There were no rehearsals, I just asked the kids to answer me based on my questions, and to respond in exactly the same way as I said them.
We had fun.
Trevor’s farewell message from Ellen Eisenkolb on Vimeo.
What would you like to say to Mr Potter?
How do you feel about Mr Potter leaving?
What will you miss most?
Hi Ellen it’s Jessica Jason’s sister it’s sad you have to leave it won’t be the same without you.Jason says he misses you and hopefully you will visit again soon. Good luck and enjoy the rest of your holidays
Hi Jessica
Thank you for writing to me. It has been a long time at Grange and I think things will be different there next year. I do miss Jason too, such a nice lad nd lovely beaming smile. I’m sure you’ll see me about and I’ll lookout for Jason. Hope you nd your family had. Wonderful Christmas.
Warm wishes Ellen
Dear Ellen camp was they bet and my favourite thing was the foam pit but when I was at the
bottom a person culdint see me and there bottom was on me.
Hello Jett,
It’s great that you still remember camp, that was so much fun wasn’t it. You were in Bali for a long time, what did you like best about that place? I haven’t been there yet I know a lot of Australians go there. What things did you get up to?
Cheers Ellen
Dear Ellen what I missed the most about Mr. Potter is his P.E lessons it was so fun. Mr.Potters video made me cry I really liked his long old hair it looked cool with him.
From Muenge Soz if I answered late
Hola Muenge,
Yes Mr Potter was a great teacher but I think you have had some other nice PE teachers since then. I know he is having a lot of fun doing things he wants to do. How do you feel about going into year 4?
Regards Ellen
Well g’day Ellen,
I know your sick today I hope your felling well, and guess what I actually had a blocked nose yesterday so sorry if it was me 😱It wasn’t my fault I got the disease also I can’t believe it’s the end of the year already, I will really miss you as being our class teacher but hopefully I will see you next year I felt way more grown-up when i first started with you as being my teacher and I still do.
made out of all of my heart Montana.
Hi Montana,
No Montana it wasn’t your fault I got sick. There are a lot of colds and viruses floating about and no-one is at fault. Thanks for thinking of me. I am still feeling yuck. It’s no fun not being able to breath is it! Well I can see how confident you have become and I think you are really ready for year 4. I am like you I can not believe that this year is almost finished. This will be a special year for me and I am not looking forward to saying good bye to my little friends at all. Still we have some weeks for great activities before then.
Warm wishes Ellen
Dear Ellen,
RUOK I heard that your vain popped I really hope that you’re feeling better now from Muenge
Hello Ellen, I hope you are all ok! What happened with you? I was remembering that moment all yesterday and today.
Margo
Greetings Margo,
Thank you Margo I am ok I think after blowing my nose a lot at school yesterday I must have broken a vein so that’s why it kept bleeding , but it stopped after you all went home. That was a good thing to because I had a meeting to go to and that would be awkward. All good, now I just have to hope this cold leaves me too!
regards Ellen
G’day Ellen my favourite subject is spelling I love doing spelling. Just asking if l can do 4 activities’ for spelling
Margo
Howdy Margo,
Good to hear that you enjoy spelling. I’d prefer you stick to the menu which is 3 activities. If you want to work on skills then you should put effort into writing stunning sentences. Then find creative ways to present your work.
Cheers Ellen
G’day room 14! I hope you all had a great school holiday? Happy to be back at school? Now It is the last term of year 3 are you all ready for year 4?
EVREYONE KNOWS ELLEN IS THE BEST TEACHER EVER!
From Margo
Dear Natalie,
You have been a great friend and I might be coming for a play with you.
From Muenge
Benievue Ellen,
How are you going?
I’m so sorry but I told the class that you can sit wherever you want in the computer room because I remember last time you said to Charlette that sit where ever but are u aloud
to. from Muenge
Hi Muenge,
I am well but very tired I have just landed in San Fransisco after a very long flight 13 hours of sitting up! I am waiting for my flight to Portland and I will be glad to find our home for the next few nights and have a shower! Well you guys know it’s gender balance in the computer room and usually you stay in the same place but sometimes you need to shift if your computer isn’t working. I hope you settled in for Mr Borg and listening to him. It is foggy here. What’s it like back home?
Warm wishes Ellen
I knew you would understand by that I mean not get mad at me😇.
Hi Muenge,
I don’t know why I should be mad at you, come to think of it have I ever been mad at you? You have me somewhat confused!
regards Ellen
Hi Ellen
I have a quick question what is the app called that has the planets I have forgotten! From Phoebe
Hello Phoebe,
The programme is called Celestial you’ll need to get family permission of course. It is a little tricky to use but once your family get the instructions they can fly you through space!
Cheers Ellen
I am missing Mr Potter because he does really good sport sessions with us and he is also a very generous man and he is very nice but he chose to retire and I cant make him come back.
I hope to see Mr Potter. Love from Cleo.
Greetings Ellen,
How are you? Camp Illawonga was great,
By the way I think you told me that your question was “How do you think about Mr. Potter leaving.” Well I think that he was a very nice sport teacher and always helpful.
From Montana.T
Hello Montana,
I am feeling a lot better now thank you. I’m glad you enjoyed Illawonga I knew you would everyone does. I wonder if Mr Potter has been reading these posts? He texted me that he wanted to reply. How are your speech preparations going? Looking forward to hearing your facts. Regards Ellen
Hi I would like to say that Mr Potter was the best P.E teacher I’ve ever had. He taught me a lot of stuff from Matthew.
Hola Ellen,
I feel upset that MR Potter has retired because I have leant lots of things from him and I want to lean more. he will always be my favorite P.E teacher from Thomas
Oh Thomas, don’t be too sad, Mr P was a fabulous teacher and I know we’ll miss him. But he gets to put his feet up now and he wont have to blow his whistle any more. Now Mr Tom will need our help. What can you do?
Cheers Ellen
Hi MR Potter
I really miss you being you were a great teacher and I like sport now and I like the games we did it was really fun with you here I wish you didn’t leave I’m playing basketball and tennis for I think 30 mins and basketball for 30 mins or 1 hour I don’t know it’s really fun.
From Ned.
Hello Ellen,
I feel sad that MR potter has left because he was a great sports teacher .I felt good when he was with us. I will miss him.
Scarlett
Howdy Scarlett,
Yes it was sad to have to farewell Mr P. I think he knew you guys thought he was great he did love working with you. I wonder if Mr Tom will be as much fun?
Regards Ellen
Dear Ellen I really like the science leaf litter from Anita
Hi Anita,
Why did you enjoy that so much?
Ellen
Hi Ellen
I’m sad Mister Potter left the school but I think the video was funny. I miss him but the new running game is good. Do you like it too?
From Emily
Greetings Emily,
I’m glad you enjoyed the Corporate clump this morning, pity about the drizzle. Mr P taught me that system and it is great fun. I do like the way teams work together to get better scores. So how do you think your clump team will go?
Regards Ellen
Dear Ellen
I would like to say to Mr Potter that he was a beautiful teacher and he is very kind and also I am very sad that he has left because he help me a lot and I will miss him a lot.
Sophie
l
Hello Sophie,
What nice compliments to your old PE teacher I’m sure he would love to read them one day. I hope you’ll look after Mr Tom while he gets used to working with our class. Warm wished Ellen
Hi Ellen I feel sad that Mr potter left the school last term because he was a great P.E teacher he was the best at it from Matthew.
Howdy Matt,
So what was it that MrP did that you really will miss? What do you think he is doing now? How do you think Mr Tom will go? I’d be interested to hear what he reckons about our class. Cheers Ellen
Hello Ellen,
That video for Mr. Potter was very funny at the assembly. I think we should do some more class games.
From Samuel
Hi Samuel,
I am more than happy to play games but of course we have to complete all our work first. Tricky that hey, we have so little time to get it all done…mm I wonder what we could do differently. Do you have any suggestions?
I’d be happy to hear.
Cheers Ellen
Dear Ellen
I miss mister potter I loved
Him as a teacher I wish he
Was back he is funny from
Jett
Hi Jett,
Yes he was funny. In fact the days we worked together were sometimes very funny indeed, he was always being silly! Lucky I’m so serious heh.
cheers Ellen
Aloha Ellen
I miss mister potter he was a great sports teacher. I started to cri when he leaft . I wished that he could come back.
From Alejandro
Hola Alex,
I’m sure MrP would be quite touched to hear you miss him so. I reckon he will come and visit us on games day. That is always his favourite thing. We could show him how fast we have become with our running eh. What did you think of CClump this morning?
Cheers Ellen
Bonjour Ellen!
I loved the video we made for Mr. Potter we all were very funny. I feel sad that he is leaving because at sport he always had fun activities for us I will miss him. But I’m very proud of my handwriting I hope I have my pen license this term.
Bonjour Sabitri,
We did a fabulous job on the video and we never practiced once, are we good or what! Of course it is sad to say bye bye to Mr P but old folk do that… I reckon it’s time for me to retire too what do you think? We will start spelling next week so you can impress me with your dazzling handwriting I can’t wait.
Cheers Ellen
Apa karba Ellen
What I would like to say to say to Mr. Potter is that he was a great P.E teacher and we will all miss him lots and lots! I feel very upset about him leaving because as I sad he was a great teacher. I will miss all the fun sport activities that we did! He was an awesome teacher and I would also like to say to him thank you for teaching and being an awesome teacher!
From Phoebe
Ti Kanis Phoebe,
I think I will have to write to MrP so that he can read all these wonderful letters for himself. You have written so many thoughtful comments I’m sure he will miss you too. Yes we will miss him, do you think Mr Tom will be okay for us? Have you had him teach you before? How can you help him?
Cheers Ellen