Retirement reflection from AMY STERLING

 WORK HISTORY
I am retiring after 25 years with GFPS, the past 9 at EMS. In those 25 years I have taught grades K-12 in instructional media classes, 10th grade English, 7th & 8th grade English and reading, 7th grade Family & Consumer Sciences, 7th grade life science with the Remote Learning Center, and in SWIS2, an academic intervention program.

MEMORABLE TIMES
I had a student who would talk about me at home with her parents, but she had trouble saying "Ms. Sterling"...it would come out "Mr. Ling"...her parents were quite surprised when they met me that I was a woman. :)

LIFE LESSONS LEARNED FROM TEACHING
Patience and grace

THESE THINGS MAKE ME MOST PROUD
I am most proud of the Remote Learning Center and my 7th grade team. We were given a huge task for the 2020-21 school year, and we jumped in and got to work. While it started out as one of the hardest years I have ever had, by the end it had become my favorite year. Reimagining education and rebuilding how school was going to "be done," in a matter of days, was a monumental task but will forever be the year I remember most fondly.

AFTER RETIREMENT
I will miss the students and their energy the most.

PLANS
While I will continue working in education, hopefully focusing on my passions of empowering women and children, I will be taking some time to focus on my health and being a mom and gramma, too. In the words of David Bowie, "I don't know where I'm going from here, but I promise it won't be boring."

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