Sample retirement card: 20 messages for Mrs. Okafor
An example group retirement card: 20 colleagues, former students and family write to a retiring teacher, and it plays like a group video message.
This is a sample card. Every person, company and message in it is made up.
About this card
Mrs. Okafor is retiring after 31 years of teaching English, and 20 people wrote to her: teachers she worked beside, the principal, former students from several graduating classes, the front office, her husband and her grandson. Real cards open only for the people who have the link, so this one is made up, with every person and the school invented.
- Recipient
- Mrs. Okafor, an English teacher retiring after 31 years
- Who wrote
- 20 people: colleagues, the principal, former students, office and library staff, and family
- Question slips
- Our first days working together, What I learned from you, A moment I was grateful for, Here's to your next chapter, Anything you'd like to say
- Stage
- River of time
- Length of the show
- about 4 min 40 s
Some of the messages in the show
- Our first days working together
August 1995, my first day teaching. You found me crying in the copy room, handed me a stapler and said, "The first year is the hardest, and you'll still be here for the second." I was. Thank you.
Mr. Delgado - What I learned from you
You showed all of us that high standards and kindness belong in the same classroom. Thirty-one years of students learned that from you, and so did I.
Principal Hayes - What I learned from you
You made me rewrite my college essay five times. I hated you a little. Then I got in. Thank you for not letting me settle.
Jade, class of '09 - A moment I was grateful for
Senior year, my family lost our apartment. You never said a word in class, but there was a granola bar on my desk every morning until graduation.
Marcus, class of '15 - Anything you'd like to say
Thirty-one Augusts of you packing a bag of new pens the night before school starts. This year, let's pack for somewhere else. Love you.
David
Signatures and doodles drawn with a finger play back at the speed they were drawn. The rest of the messages are in the show.
Instead of a tribute video
A retirement tribute video means asking dozens of people to film a clip and then editing them together. This show is made straight from the messages people write, so nobody films or edits anything. Play it on the projector at the retirement party, and the retiree keeps the link afterwards.
Making a card like this
- Pick the retirement occasion when you make the card, and the same question slips are ready.
- Share the writing link with the current team and ask them to pass it on to people who worked with the retiree before. The organizer’s guide has an announcement to copy.
- Everyone writes from their own phone without signing in, picks a handwriting font and an ink color, and signs with a finger.
- After the deadline, set the order in the editor, press Finish, and play the viewing link at the party.
For people who get stuck, share the retirement message examples.
Making a card and the viewing link are free. Only the person who makes the card signs in, with a Google account.