Big Old Deal

"Hi, I'm Miss Van Egdom. This is my first year at Inwood Christian, and I've really enjoyed getting to know these 7th and 8th graders this year!"

A grandma in the back corner: BAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Um, what? I have no clue why that was funny, but one of the grandmas decided to laugh at it. "It wasn't supposed to be a joke! hahahaha!" is what I replied. And that was the beginning of my first Grandparents' Day.

As a teacher, I was freaking out a little bit. How do I entertain two widely-spread generations for and hour and a half? Well, I was able to figure out a way to do it. Here is my advice. (Disclaimer: The advice I'm about to give is only after having one Grandparents' Day as a teacher, so it may not be the best advice ever, but here goes.)

1. Let the grandparents talk about the "Good Ol' Days," or more importantly, the days where things were a lot more difficult for them than it is for students now. It is really interesting to hear about it though. They all laughed when I confessed that I didn't know what Einy-Einy Over (or something like that) was. "Oh, she's so young!"

2. Get the students talking with the grandparents. Some of the kids rarely ever talk to their grandparents one-on-one, but some do all the time, and it's interesting to see the dynamic there. It's also interesting to see which grandparents are like their grandkids.

3. Show off the technology. I introduced the grandparents to the Smartboard. "Our school was nothing like this!" They thought it was pretty neat, and a couple even got the courage to get up and try their hand at dragging things across the screen. And my kids got to show off their smarts when it comes to solids, liquids, and gases.

4. Get messy! Ok, so some grandparents like this, and some.....like to watch. We made Oobleck! (Cornstarch and water mixed together.) Basically we got to play with it for 20 minutes. It was interesting to see which grandparents liked to get dirty, and which preferred to sit back and watch their grandkids.

5. Clean-up - The clean-up took some time too, which is helpful.

Overall, everything went really well. I'm really happy with how everything turned out. We had a really good turnout of grandparents too. Got one under my belt. Cha-ching!

Three Days in a Row!?!

Big deal of the day was definitely the 8th grade Math Bee in Boyden. Woop!

I was a proctor - which meant that I handed out tests, walked around, made sure kids weren't cheating, walked around, collected tests. I was in charge of five tables.

At the beginning of the bee, all the proctors were being introduced and the announcer guy said that I would be proctoring the pink tables. One of the 8th graders at one of the tables goes, "Yesssssssss!" I don't think he knew I heard him though. Then his friend behind him says, "You're lucky! I get the fat lady." bahahahaha - Oh, 8th graders.

Back at school, all I had to worry about this afternoon was PE. And I was able to try high jumping for the first time in my life. My kids took me under their wing and coached me through. I really should've measured how high I was able to jump. I'm sure it was an impressive height. And it was so fun! I may have even practiced a little after everyone left school.

Little Chair, Big Deal

There were several "big deals" today. When I say big deal, I am being completely sarcastic.

My kids were in quite the mood this afternoon. One of the biggest deals was probably that one of my kids got injured, so she was using a little chair from the 1st and 2nd grade room to put her leg on. When she was done with it, one boy used it, then another boy stole it and used it. I told them they had to sit on their own chairs and I was going to take the little chair..........because I wanted to sit on it.

They thought that was hilarious. They cracked up as I took it to my big teacher desk and sat down. They kept giggling about it until I asked if it was a distraction from their work and suggested that I should go back to sitting on my normal chair. "Nope! Not a distraction!" and back to work they went.

Big Deal

So I don't know if you know any middle schoolers, but if you do, like on a personal level, you will discover that little things are big deals.

So I've had this idea to do the "Big Deal of the Day" on my blog, but the problem is that I already know that I won't be diligent in keeping it up. So I'll just give you a couple "big deals" at a time.

For example, one of the big deals today was that the high jump mat was set up in the gym. Woo! Party! Could life get any better? The kids were excited and spent every free moment of the day trying to jump higher than 4 feet.

Oh, and another big deal, at least with the boys, is Call of Duty. They asked me to Google who is ranked number one in the Call of Duty list thing. Yeah, I don't really know what they were talking about. But it is one of the main things they talk about.

I should be thankful that these are the biggest deals in my classroom. A lot of other middle school classrooms, especially at public schools have to deal with actual problems - family problems, bullying, poverty, misbehavior, etc. I am so blessed that I have only the slightest little problems, if any, that even compare with those.

Anyways, I'll try to post some more "big deals." And as the year is coming to a close, everything is getting crazy busy, which means that there is a lot going on, which means that there are going to be a lot of things that the kids get excited about that aren't really all that exciting.

Such is life.

April Fools

So, apparently, April Fool's Day is a huge deal at my school. All the kids get very into it and go way overboard. Here's a pictur of what they did to my room right away in the morning. My desk is back there somewhere. They replaced my whiteboard markers with crayons, and, although it's not shown in this picture, there were about 20 pencils sticking out of the ceiling. They also stuck a cell phone in the ceiling and proceeded to call it over and over throughout the day, leaving me looking everywhere for it. Oh, the hilarity.

FebRuary

Yes, that is how February is spelled. Some of my students were surprised to learn that the other day. Shouldn't they already know that? Some of them even argued with me, saying that February did NOT have that extra 'R' in it. I directed their attention to the calendar on the wall. They were in shock. Their whole world had apparently been turned upside down.

Anyways, not much has been happening lately. Best friend Bethany left the great state of South Dakota. It was a sad, sad day. I still don't understand why you would leave snowy South Dakota for hot, sticky, humid Florida. Silly girl. I miss her...... a lot.

In the meantime, I have been hanging out with Dan and Nate. They are great, except for the fact that they are moving to Mexico in a couple weeks. For a year. Really? All my friends are leaving me? Not cool.

I am planning on replacing my friends though, so it's all good. With who? Rather, with what.... I am planning on buying a Wii with my tax return money. Yes, I am that cool. A little white box can certainly replace human interaction, right? We'll find out.

Blog Resurrected

Yeah, so I haven't written for awhile. I know. And that means that you probably don't even check this blog anymore. Oh well.

Anyways, I'm going to move away from writing about school for a little bit so I can reflect over this past year. And yes, Kayla, I'm totally stealing this idea from you. :)

2009 was definitely an eventful year for me. There seemed to be a lot of death this year, which was hard. But I think that the bad times were definitely outweighed by the good times. So many great things happened to me this past year! I have so much to be thankful for!

So here is my 2009:

January

• Made the big move to Florida
• Spent 30 hours in the car with my BFF Bethany.
• Started my first session of student teaching with the third grade class at Lake Worth Christian school
• Parents came out to visit me.
• Bowser, my beloved goldfish, died. I cried. A lot.
• Met a ton of great, new people.
• Fell in love with my kiddos. They were so great!
• Experienced Chick-Fil-A.

February

• Kept learning throughout my student teaching experience.
• My birthday - got the biggest balloon I have ever seen in my life, and got Chee-burger for supper.
• Got the Twilight series from my parents!
• Chito, our faithful dog of many years, was put to sleep........on my birthday.
• Drove back to South Dakota with my dad. "Well, this is gonna be fun."

March

• Moved back to Dordt.
• Started my second session of student teaching at Sioux Center Christian in a 6th grade classroom
• Decided that a middle school setting is where I belong.
• Got 3 new goldfish - Pearl, Poppy, and Sebastian
• Trip to the Omaha Zoo with the roomies! Great times!

April

• Learned a lot more in my student teaching experience.
• Did a huge unit on writing children's picture books.
• My Grandpa DeBondt died. It was incredibly hard, and he will be missed.
• Interviewed and got a job at Inwood Christian School! Praise the Lord!
• Learned that Katie was prego!

May

• Graduated from Dordt, and DIDN'T get to sit next to Geron like we had been planning on for 2 whole years!
• Said goodbye to a ton of friends.
• Sort of looked for a summer job, but not very hard.

June

• Relaxed.
• Went on the Suleri - family summer bike ride to Missouri - Hot, hot weather, a flat tire, but lots of fun.

July

• Best friend since Kindergarten, Katie, got married.
• 4 weekends in a row of weddings.
• My big trip by myself - drove from Sioux Falls to Oregon for Ryan and Geron's wedding. Stopped in Montana on the way out there to surprise Kari. Mission accomplished. Headed out of Helena, got stuck in Portland during rush hour, made it to Geron's house. It was so special to be there and see where she lives and meet her family. And, of course, to see her get married. So much fun! And I was definitely the best personal attendant ever! Who else would spend hours picking little cocklebur things out of a lace wedding dress? (ok, maybe not hours) Left Oregon, stopped in Helena a SECOND time to surprise Kari again. Mission accomplished. Hung out there for two days. Drove home.

August

• Kept thinking, "I should really start getting ready for school."
• Took a trip to Chicago with Breanna to visit Karla and Todd. Met Boomer! Saw David. Went downtown Chicago and saw the sites. A great time!
• School started. Oh my goodness, I don't know if I have ever been so nervous!
• Started to get to know the kids.......pretty quiet still.
• Bethany moved back to Sioux Falls!

September

• Everything is kind of a blur during school, it goes so fast, and I have no idea what happened when.
• Starting to get to know the kids better. By the end of September, they seem like normal kids - very talkative. But they're good kids.......most of the time.

October

• First time I had to give up my break over Heartland weekend to actually GO to the teachers' conference. Saw a bunch of my old elementary and high school teachers there. Weird.
• School, school school
• Boy problems - this basically happens throughout the whole year, but especially this month. I won't expand on it though. :)

November

• First ever Parent-Teacher conferences. Scary, but they went ok.
• Kayla and Becky came to Sioux Falls and we all went to see New Moon! Jacob takes off his shirt - GASP!
• School, school, school

December

• This month flew by.
• Snow day!
• And, finally, Christmas break! I'm so glad I decided to be a teacher!
• Christmas - got shoes and stuff, gave Breanna her lifesize Jacob/Taylor Lautner cardboard cutout - her reaction = priceless.
• Blizzard of the century
• Shoveled.
• Shoveled.
• Shoveled.
• Saw Geron.
• Happy New Year!

New Year's Resolution - Try to blog more. Ok, not really. I don't make New Year's resolutions, but I really will try to do better. :)