I started school at Potamaac Elementary in September of 1988. My frist teacher was Mrs. Cock, who wasn't there for most of the year because she had a baby. Instead, I had Mrs. Davoy. Kindergarten was lots of fun but my favorite part was the circus. As an activity to learn vocabulary and selling, the two kindergarten classes put on a circus. I was the tight rope walker. It was the coolest thing to be beacuse I was allowed to not only stand on the tablebut to walk on it. i wore my favorite bathing suit, pink with big colored polka dots, and my ballet skirt. It was the gaudiest outfit, but I was in heaven. Teh circus went well and my mom took lots of pictures.
My only other good memory from Kindergarten was the first story I ever wrote. I, again, had clothes on my mind. I wrote a story about a little girl who had all kinds of different shoes. She had every shoe imaginable. I think I had already begun to care about fashion. Maybe, my future was foretold in this litle story for my school's literary magazine.
I dont think I had a very bad time in Kindergarten. The only insult I remember was when a little black boy, I think maybe Thomas Savoy, called me pumpkin head. At the time, it really hurt my feelings, but now, I realize he must have liked me.
In first grade my teacher was Mr. Gilbert. He was the coolest guy. He was really nice, and for the first time, I was in the smart class. halfway throuhg the year, I had to take a test. I didn't know what it was for, but the answers were really easy. It was like a game to me. The results of the tets came back and I must haev done remarkably well because I was then placed in the figted and talented program with Mrs. Walsemen. Certain times of the day, the gifted children would leave and go to a special classroom. We would learn more advanced material than the other students. While they were reading from the reading book, we were reading chapter books. We also go to do unique projects. We put on a game show similar to "To Tell the Truth" where we dressed up as Benjamin Franklin and the regular students hadto ask questions to decide which of us was the REAL Ben Franklin. There were only 8 or so of us, but I think I remember Chris Dineen, Justin Colley, Josh Yon, Shannon Spurlock, Scott Burrell, and Anne Bladen Courts. We got to go on special field trips. Once, while we were studying Greek myths, we wrote our own myths adn then went to a Greek restaurant adn read our myths aloud. This was before they stopped allowing special trips and privileges based on intelligence.
My best friend during this time was Bonnie Bertz. We were never in the same classes because Bonnie wasn't very smart, but every minute we were out of school we spent together. We were like two peas in a pod. We loved to spend time running throuhg the woods in Bayberry adn chasing after Bonnie's brothers. We also liked to hide from Phoebe, Bonnie's mother in the tree house. She would get worried and call all of the neighbors. Our other main source of entertainment was bike riding. Bikes were the only way to travel. We would tie our baby dolls to the handlebars of a bicycle and pretend we were driving and our kids were in their carseats. We raced and played dress up. Bonnie and I had so much fun. Almost every journal from that time say something about Bonnie. She was my best friend.
In 2nd grade, I had Mrs. McGowan as my teacher. She was really nice, but I didn't like many people in my class. This was not one of my favorite years. There were good parts though. I went to Florida with my family. We didn't go to Disney World, but we went to MGM studios and NASA. I met a girl from Denmark on the train thatyear. She was 15, adn we had lots of fun. She came with my family when we went places and she tried to teach me Danish. I didn't understand her.
3rd grade was a great year, despite the difficult work. I had a wonderful teacher. His name was mr. Furney. He was hilarious. I also had Anne Bladen as my best friend during this year. We sat next to each other in a group with Randall Scott and Michael Jordan. The boys insisted our group be named, "The Chicago Bulls." Anne Bladen and I thought that was a stupid name but we agreed because they were boys. Mr Furney had a really neat way of teaching us. He had a big puppet named Buford, which wrapped around him. When he had the puppet on, we could not tell that his hand was in it. It seemed just like a big hairy monster was teaching us cursive writing and multiplication. Buford loved to make jokes. He constantly teached Mr. Furney for his crush on Kristi Yamaguchi. For Christmas, my class made Mr Furney a poster with lots of clip out pictures of Kristi Yamaguchi. Mr Furney was a cool guy. He actually cared about his students and you could tell because he always had a creative way to teach. HE inspired me to be a teacher. I'm sad to say that Mr Furney left Potomac 2 years ago to move back to Ohio. This is a great loss for the king George School System.
After 3rd grade, I prepared for 4th. There was no drastic change. I was not even worried. The only hard transistion I would have to deal with would be when Bonnie left public school. Her mother withdrew her so that she could be home-schooled. I think this was a horrible idea, but I survived. I was ready to take on the 4th grade.
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