Just Call Me "Coach"

Have I mentioned that I'm the "track coach?" Commence laughter now. Sometimes I don't think that the staff at my school realizes how unathletic I am and how little knowledge I have when it comes to sports.

I did actually participate in track in 7th grade though. And when I say participate, I hardly mean it. I joined track so I could hang out with my athletic friends and get out of school. When we were actually at the track meets, I "wouldn't hear when my events were called." Sorry, Coach. I think I remember getting a stern talking to when our coach found out that I was skipping over half of my events. Although, I was always on the line and ready to go when it came to the sack race. Luckily, my students are a little bit more dedicated than I was. Track meet at Western tomorrow and Dordt next week. Get excited.

Also, I chose this picture because the high jumper looks like he is in so much pain. And look at that body! Is that even normal to bend like that? No sport that involves that position could be healthy.

If You're Happy...

Tonight was the all-school music program. Meaning, I didn't get home til 9:30. Meaning, it's 10:00 right now. Meaning, I am dead tired and I should be getting ready for bed instead of writing this blog. Meaning, I am such a dedicated blogger that I would do anything for the enjoyment of my readers. Yeah......

So the preschoolers started out the progam. They were a huge hit with great songs. How can singing preschoolers that are holding flashlights and singing about lightning bugs not be cute? And I'll have you know, I was that girl that flipped off the lights for that song. Yep, I had a pretty important role in the program tonight, and I must say, I did a pretty good job.

Anyways, the preschoolers are cute.......my kids, not so much. The boys, of course, are struggling with the whole voice change thing, and the girls are kind of at the point where they aren't very confident in their singing abilities and they squeak and strain to reach those high notes. Not that they sound bad, they just have a lot working against them at this age. One of the songs that they sang tonight had the chorus, "If you're happy, say 'Amen.'" Never have I ever seen a bunch of kids so UNhappy to be singing a song like that. Up in front of 150 parents and grandparents looked like it was the LAST place they wanted to be. Of course, once they're done singing, they're giggling and whispering and bouncing around the room with tons of energy. Typical.

Trying to understand junior high kids is a job in itself. Teaching them is at least two more. I should be getting paid overtime.

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.