Teaching

Oh my goodness I haven't blogged about our life at Knox lately! (I DO HAVE AN EXCUSE THOUGH!!): Teaching!!! Teaching = MY LIFE. I am teaching third grade at Van Voorhis elementary... which is literally down the road... I could walk/ride my bike, but yes, I do drive... maybe one day I'll walk/drive/run/etc. but I can't believe how much stuff you take home everyday when you teach... and I don't have a basket, so I can only imagine how I'd look if I tried biking to school with all of my "stuff"... I might just end up looking like Caleb did when he was training for his bike/adventure race and FORGOT that his feet were locked into his bike pedals... and he had to stop... needless to say I came home about a year ago to a bloody husband... yes, that's what I would look like... but I guess Van Voorhis has a nurse... hmm... weighing my options about this right now...

Ok, so teaching... I LOVE IT!!! I was talking to my friend Michele yesterday about teaching... it seriously is my passion... the other day I was asked about my "job"... and you know what? I can't call "teaching" my "job"... I say "I'm going to school" or Caleb asks "how the kids were"... I have always said "I'm going to work" or "I have to work/have to go to work" but I can't! How awesome is it that I'm 23 years old and have truly found what I love doing?! It's awesome :) My students are amazing and the faculty is wonderful... I am so blessed to be working here... I don't have a job lined up for next year yet as this teaching job is just to finish off the school year, but I'm hoping that I get a full-time position after this!

Teaching has so many perks... for those of you who have children or have even babysat younger kids you know that "kids say the darndest" things... (remember the tv show with Cosby?)- yeah, that's my life... EVERY DAY!!! For instance... one of my students came up to me and told me that he didn't want to learn how to tie his shoes b/c if he knew how, his mom would make him do it from now on... or another time when a student wasn't necessarily working... I asked this student to come up to my desk to see the progress that they had made on their assignment- the student started crying and said "I haven't been looking at you because I knew that if I did, then you would call me up here to see how much I've gotten done... and to be honest, I haven't done anything... it's just... it's not my fault... I'm just... just... so lazy!!!!!!" STOP. PAUSE. I told the student to go sit back down... turned around and about died of laughter... really? OH MY WORD... I LOVE MY LIFE. In all seriousness though teaching is wonderful- I love going to school (notice I didn't say "work?") and just being around the students... it's sooo great!

Ok, so with teaching, I've been doing many experiments/hands on activities/etc. because I like to keep them "entertained" so that they don't go "off the wall"... and I'm trying to show them how to be healthy as well (we're working on eating healthy/exercise/food pyramid/etc. in Health)... so, our class is doing a project with the acidity levels in pop and what it does to your teeth... we put teeth (from one of the other teachers!) in cups and filled it with different types of pop... then measured the acidic level... (which is really high for pop!) and are now seeing the teeth change colors as well as DISSOLVE.. yes, the teeth are DISSOLVING! Needless to say, the students and I are totally disgusted... but they still are going to drink pop... one said that they didn't need teeth to enjoy icecream/etc... hmmm... I don't think the student is "getting" this lesson... talking about not "getting" it... rewind to the introduction of this lesson... here I am telling the students what we're going to do- for about 10 minutes I'm saying "pop is very acidic"... "pop isn't good.. pop, pop, pop... " then another teacher who was with a student, in the room said... "SODA"... and it was like a HUGE LIGHTBULB went off throughout the room... the kids had NO IDEA what I was talking about... I forgot I was "technically" in the "south"... where they say "soda"... but don't you worry Michiganders... I REFUSE to revert to "soda"... so our experiment is called the "Soda POP Experiment"... from there we continued to talk about how different regions do/say things differently :) (teachable moment huh?!)

Ok, so some of you may know that I don't "do" teeth... or blood... nope... not me. Teaching third grade I totally forgot that they're still loosing their teeth... AGHH!!! However, I have amazing students... awhile back we were talking as a class about things we do, things we don't like, "quirks" (we learned that!), etc... I was honest and told them about my "fear" of horses, how I don't handle blood well, how I don't like loose teeth, etc... so... going back to my story... this week a student had a lose tooth... she walked up to me and said "Mrs. Lohman I lost my tooth... it's in my hand- I know you don't like teeth/blood, so I just wanted to tell you- I'm going to the nurse"- PRAISE GOD FOR OUR NURSE!!! ;)

Last note about teaching (for this week!): Picture day was Thursday... yes, PICTURE DAY... they have several "picture days" in military schools as the "turnover of students" is so quick... remember, this is the military- your life revolves around MOVING... within my first two weeks of teaching, one student moved away, I then gained a student, then, got a student from another classroom, and just a few weeks ago, had another student move away... and will possibly have more come/go within the next week or so! However, picture day- I was SOO EXCITED! It was my FIRST "picture day" as a TEACHER... it is however a bit stressful... being on "this side" of it... we had our picture day AFTER lunch... so, I told all the students to be SUPER CAREFUL when they ate/drank (they did so well!) and then we washed our faces/hands- no ketchup on the chin/cheeks in ANY of my kiddos pics... yes, I was that teacher that had baby wipes/fixing hair/tying bows/etc. as the students were going up to the photographer... hopefully they turn out and the parents like them... however, I can't help if some of my kids blink ;)