After teaching for the past seven years, Deedee Abbott is leaving Grady to take care of her daughter Flora, 11, son Finn, 7 and dog Minnie.
“Nobody is doing it at this point, and somebody’s got to do it,” Abbott said. “I am going to be a class parent and be able to take care of my children when they are sick. I am going to facilitate them while they are young and will still let me.”
During her tenure at Grady, Abbott was involved in many extracurricular activities including debate and drama. In Grady’s 2011 production of Hairspray, Abbott played Velma Von Tussle, the mother of the antagonist in the play. In the school’s most recent musical, Anything Goes, Abbott portrayed a celebrity-crazed old lady in a wheelchair. Abbott said she thoroughly enjoyed acting in these productions.
“[The productions] may have been some of my favorite experiences [at Grady] because I got to see how hard the kids worked to put on the show,” Abbott said. “It gave me new appreciation for our extracurriculars and made me value what kids can learn from doing them.”
This past year, Abbott became the advisor of The Unmasking, Grady’s literary magazine, after Scott Stephens retired last year.
“I have loved looking for creative writing prompts, and we have some really amazing creative writers,” Abbott said.
Abbott said she loved being involved in the lit mag, despite the challenges of the magazine’s diorganization.
“I am going to be involved next year, and I already have a written document of how to do better.”
Abbott plans to advise The Unmasking next year and volunteer in the Writing Center.
Junior Rachel Klika, who had classes with Abbott for ninth grade journalism, 10th-grade literature and lit mag, is one of the many students who will miss Abbott.
“This year Ms. Abbott has been great as the lit mag advisor,” Klika said. “She brought in a bunch of poems from outside that we have never read, and we would do these class discussions and some of them were really funny.”
Klika said that she would especially miss the fun and hands-on nature of Abbott’s classes were.
“When you have been having a bad day, you go into her class and can’t be in a bad mood,” Klika said. “It’s hard to be in a bad mood in her class because she is fun, and she will do something more upbeat. She makes sure that the class is having a good time.”
Abbott said there would be many things that she will miss about Grady, but she will especially miss the staff and students.
“I am going to miss my faculty friends, and I am going to miss being involved with the students,” Abbott said. “I didn’t know that I would like it so much. I just like watching [the students] grow up. It is interesting and fascinating and cute.”
One of Abbott’s close faculty friends is environmental science teacher Kori Ellis, who has known Abbott well for five years. The two teachers became friends when Abbott moved to the classroom adjacent to Ellis’s.
“[Abbott] brings her own personal spin to everything,” Ellis said. “Her classroom, her style. She is a very unique individual, and I have a lot of respect for her and she is fun to be with.”
Ellis said that she will miss having fun with Abbott, like when they would dance to the final scene of Slumdog Millionaire in class.
“I’m sad that I won’t be able to visit her,” Ellis said. “But I am happy for her.”
