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. :)

Mr. Mark R. Board

So my students thought that it would be really funny today if they all decided to stop talking to me. They decided they were going to talk to the white marker board behind me instead of actually talking to me.

I played along and drew a face on the board with "Mark R. Board" written above it. (Disclaimer: This was not a name I came up with, but a name from a puppet show thing we had on Friday.) Anyways, I gave them their assignment, and the students were like, "Can we work on this with partners.........Mr. Mark R. Board?

I would look at the board, and then turn around and say, "He says no. Sorry." After a couple more questions with responses from Mr. Mark R. Board, I let them get started on their assignment.

Soon, I hear from the back of the room, "I don't get number 3.......Mark R. Board."

I looked up and smiled, and went back to my grading.

"Yeah, like, how are we supposed to figure out what 3b is?" The students look up at me, and then quickly remember that they decided not to talk to me and turn their heads to the front board. "Mr. Mark R. Board?"

More questions came, but they did not want to ask me. After their assignment they were supposed to work on their art projects that we didn't finish last week.

"Can I do my math instead of art.......Mark R. Board?" Then a glance at me. A smile from me, and then back to my grading.

It was quite hilarious how the students weren't getting the answers they wanted. Hmmmm......maybe they need me a little more than they thought they did.

Another Week

So, two of my kids are out with H1N1. I don't think anyone in the school has it except the kids in my class. Hand sanitizer and Lysol wipes were very popular in my room this week.

It's so weird to have two kids out. We had three kids out sick one day too. It feels like so many kids are missing, especially when three kids equals about a third of the class.

So my kids have been begging me for a new seating arrangement. I said that they could sit wherever they wanted to if they didn't complain the entire day. If they did complain, I would put that person in a new spot. They actually did very well with the no complaining thing, which was very nice for me. There were a couple of eye rolls and loud sighs, but I let them get away with it because the complaints weren't verbal.

We did an art project yesterday with the 1st/2nd graders. Little kids are so fun! They are so much cuter than my 7th and 8th graders! Sometimes I wonder if I should have taught younger grades, but then I remember that they can barely spell their own names and they sometimes can't get their coats zipped up by themselves. Then I realize that I probably made the right decision with teaching junior high kids.

Oh yeah, and we never get sidetracked in my classroom.........oh wait.

Things that were learned in school today....

- Gum will not harm you if you swallow it. Although the body does not digest it, it is still able to run its course. BUT if you swallow a lot of gum, it could lead to constipation and intestinal blockage. One of my 7th graders is worried she's going to die.

- Elvis Presley sang "Blue Suede Shoes" and dances funny. I told the kids that the song "Air Force One" is like modern-day "Blue Suede Shoes" because it made people want to buy that kind of shoe. One kid had heard of that song...which is probably a good thing, because it is not a song that I promote - and I told my kids that. So then I gave them the example of Air Jordans. Better? Yes, I think so.

- There is a new form of a Kindle called the Nook. (These are kind of like ipods for books) I am excited about them, and I think my kids thought they sounded kind of cool.

nook: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/nook/index.asp?cm_mmc=Google-_-Nook%20-%20Nook%20-%20Exact-_-Nook-_-nook&cm_mmca1=10851528&utm_source=Google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Nook_-_Nook_-_Exact&utm_creative=Nook+3484215924&iq_id=10851528&H000000012

- There are also new ear buds that are being marketed. They have bananas, paw prints, and screws on them - it makes them look like they are coming out of your ears. Weirdness.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/21/solid-alliances-new-earbuds-are-crazy-ugly/

- You can buy an application to turn the iPhone into an instrument.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhCJq7EAJJA

- No one in my class had ever heard the Zelda theme song before.

- My students were making the international symbol for "retard" in my classroom today. (Smacking your hand sideways across your chest) I told them that I did not want to see that in my classroom. They were all in awe that I actually knew what that meant.

But they can't get those things past me. I'm so on top of things all the time......

Fridays.....

Wow, so yesterday was DEFINITELY a Friday. The kids were.......energetic yesterday. I suppose that's a good way to put it. The afternoon was definitely worse than the morning.

We had flag football intramurals over lunch, so I don't know if that got them all crazy or what it was. Perhaps it was the mushy chicken alfredo at lunch?

Anyways, so our afternoon always starts with DOL (Daily Oral Language), which the kids ALWAYS complain about and ALWAYS ask if they actually have to do it. I tell them that it's called Daily Oral Language for a reason - we do it DAILY. So they had four sentences to copy down and correct. Four. Then they went up to the Smart Board to make the corrections. This usually takes about ten minutes. Well, yesterday it ended up taking about 25 minutes. I think they now view DOL time as "Ask Miss Van Egdom questions" time. I'm starting to wonder if they are trying to make it last as long as possible.....hmmmm....

So after DOL we started science. I had a few demonstrations focusing on states of matter and phase changes. I was going to take two beakers of water - one hot, one cold - and put food coloring in them to see how quickly or slowly they diffuse. Well, I took one of the beakers and put it in the fridge in the morning so it would be cold enough for our experiment. Well, I go to get the beaker, and I realize that I accidentally put it in the freezer. So I have a beaker full of ice which is now cracked. Perfect. I then grabbed another beaker and got cold water from the sink. I am such a fast thinker.

Then we had a little fun with balloons. Our science book says if you take a balloon outside on a cold day, it will shrink. So I gave every 7th and 8th grader their own balloon (bad idea #2). We headed outside and pretty much nothing happened. The balloons were maybe a little more squishy than they were before. I let the kids play with the balloons for about 5 minutes, which they were pretty excited about. But it didn't help that they started playing with their balloons in front of the 1st/2nd grade room window. Oh, their poor teacher.

We headed back to the room and I made all the students put their balloons in their lockers. I threw my balloon behind my desk and ran to the teachers' lounge to make copies while the kids were working on their art project. I come back to a noisy room and everyone looks at me when I enter.

"What happened?"

"Well, we popped your balloon."

"And how exactly did that happen?"

"Well, it was like going through the air and Devin's pencil hit it."

"Hmmm, but as I recall, I put the balloon behind my desk before I left the room. How did it get all the way over here?"

"Ummm......well, my eraser flew across the room, so I had to go get it."

"That is the lamest excuse I have ever heard!"

Laughter ensues.

So yeah, that's my class on Friday afternoons. Needless to say, I'm glad it's the weekend.