On the dry erase board in William Beachy's Waterloo Elementary School classroom, dozens of farewell messages from students are crammed up against one another, fighting for space and occasionally misspelled.
"No more Mr. Beachy, o no, that can't happen!" "Please don't let us have a mean teacher." "Your awesome, dude!"
Beachy, who has spent 45 years in Howard County schools — 38 as the band and strings teacher at Waterloo — is retiring from his position at the end of the school year.
"Everything just seemed to come together at the same time for retiring," he said. "My wife retired from Mt. Hebron (High School) last year, I can collect Social Security. It's just the logical time."
Beachy, 66, lives in Ellicott City, and while he tells his colleagues he plans on traveling — "I don't want to disappoint them," he said — his main goal is to spend time editing and composing music. Any travelling he does will be a result of that, he said.
"Last year, 200 violinists in Omaha played one of my songs for some event," he said. "If something like that occurs, I'll get on a plane and go. I'd like to hear 200 violinists playing one of my tunes."
Beachy composes music for elementary beginners, and plays numerous instruments, primarily the piano and the trumpet. As he plays "Fur Elise" on the keyboard, the battling sounds of African drums come from the other music room next door.
This year, about 160 students have come through his doors, learning songs from Beethoven, Brahms, Bach and Schubert, the same way its been for almost half a century. Several faculty members at Waterloo were once Beachy's students, he said, including Susan Webster, the current principal.
"That's what I'll miss, the people I work with, including the kids," he said. "The whole staff, the students, the parents, the whole community. Although, you do run into them all the time out and about, but I'll miss working with them on a daily basis."
"Daily basis" for Beachy means rehearsals with band and string students before the first class, then lessons through lunch. For recess, he offers short personal lessons and by the end of the day, he said, he typically has five instruments he has to repair. But it's worth it.
"I've had students go on to become music teachers," he said. "There are always exceptionally talented students, it's hard to say where to start."