teaching moments

i experience my first read-in day at timothy christian this past friday. it's a day where all the kids from K-6 get to come to school in their pajamas with pillows, stuffed animals, and bags of books in tow. the whole day is dedicated to reading - reading silently, guest readers, reading with friends, teacher read alouds, reading with parents - you name it, we read it. matt was one of our guest readers, so it was nice that the kids could make that connection.

the other day i had a pretty great teaching moment. while the 3rd graders were working on their little netbooks with an online math program, one of the students raised her hand. usually they have questions about concepts that we haven't learned yet. but this time, the little girl says.....mrs. van schepen! this makes so much more sense to me now that you taught us about decimals! i will admit that i may have had a little bit of pride in that moment...forgive me. but i won't lie...it's nice to have verbal confirmation straight from the mouth of the students sometimes!

after next week i'll just about be 1/2 way done....crazy! i'm really enjoying my time and learning a lot....especially how hard my own mother worked when she taught AND took care of her family at the same time. it's just me and matt and i feel like i'm in a perpetual losing battle against our dirty clothes hamper! thanks, mom :)

a month in a nutshell

i had full intentions of getting a post on here about Christmas break before i started student teaching. obviously that didn't happen. it was also a little bit of me not quite knowing how to adequately wrap up those 2 weeks into something coherent. so a month later, here is my attempt - please forgive the randomness....

Christmas break started with a weekend of emotional highs and lows. and since life keeps speeding along at its crazy pace, i'm left feeling inadequate in knowing what to say. how do you put into words a man that has fathered and mentored generations, loved without restriction, and would never think of putting himself before anyone else.....a man that raised a family in a commitment to Christ - truly showing how Great is His Faithfulness....a grandfather that knew and loved each one of his grandchildren in their own unique way, making everyone feel at home when they were with him. i guess it's the same with anyone that's lost someone they love. but we had a beautiful weekend celebrating grandpa's life and rejoicing that he is now painlessly praising our Lord on the streets of gold.

after a roller coaster of emotion that first weekend, matt and i set off for minnesota and then on to iowa. matt was able to ice fish...and i stayed by the heater to read my books and drink plenty of hot apple cider. thankfully, we had dry roads every day we had to travel - that part of christmas always stresses me out! one of my friends here in chicagoland told me she is just amazed at the amount of miles that we log. maybe i'm used to it already, but when you finish a 10 CD book on tape before you even start the trip home, and the back seat and trunk are packed pretty full....for 2 people!...i guess it's quite a trip.

and now it's on to student teaching. i'm in 3rd grade and love it! my school just does 1 placement, so i'll be there through the end of march. starting next week, i'll be teaching everything but reading and writing, so things are getting busy. i love the teaching part, just not all the formal write ups that i have to do for my college. my class is great (actually spoiling me too much b/c they are so well behaved) and my cooperating teacher's wonderful.....plus matt and i get to carpool! i'll have to take my camera with me some day and catch a few pictures.

the rest of our life is usually basketball. matt's done with basketball next weekend and i'm done the following weekend. matt's team just lost by 1 in their conference playoffs tonight to a tough team they beat 2 times in the regular season. my team is doing well - i think we are sitting 3rd in the conference but are just starting the second time through playing all the teams. they are a really fun group of girls to coach, but i won't lie - the afternoons will be nice to have back when i start teaching full time in february!

here's some pictures from Christmas break...

this present is matt in a nutshell - a Bill Nye bobblehead

tyler wins the prize for the most creatively wrapped present

it was a veeery frosty, beautiful morning when we left edgerton

i guess it's only appropriate that all i have is the crazy family picture on my camera...mom and dad - you should work on better faces for next year :)

the van wyk valley view farms version of the stonehenge

since i post so infrequently...and matt posts even less, i thought i should include some of his exciting things from the past week. first, he saved up and got the sale he was looking for to get this ice house. notice that it takes up our entire living room when it's in full form - this only lasted for about 15 minutes and then i made him put it back in the bag. :)

and matt finished his 3 year project of crocheting a blanket. yes, he did this all himself....he wanted me to make him one but i told him we had plenty of blankets. his response was....fine, teach me how to do it and i'll crochet one myself.....so he did! even to the point where he would take out a stitch if i did it b/c he wanted it to say he did the whole thing. it's quite impressive....and quite large.

well, i should probably start thinking about the teacher's manuals sitting all over my couch around me. matt and i are headed up to holland this weekend b/c timothy girls and boys basketball plays holland christian tomorrow, so it will be a short weekend! hope everyone has a great weekend!