On Your Mark, Get Set...

There are officially 6 weeks left of the school year. 6 WEEKS! Where did the time go? Seriously?! I cannot believe it. I had a slight panic attack when I realized this the other day. I feel like I have so much more I want to teach my students! They are my very first class, its going to be hard and strange to have them leave my class!

At the same time, I can definitely see that these kids are ready for 3rd grade. I look back and see all they have learned and how much they have grown. My students are now effortlessly writing paragraphs, reading substantial chapter books, telling time, labeling possessive pronouns and object of the preposition in sentences, writing in cursive, and memorizing various dates in history, among  lots of other work they have completed.  They are ready! Almost...we still have 6 weeks left!

My students have been very busy, especially as of late. Lots of projects have come up in this later part of the year. It has been fun to dig into these projects and to see the students really enjoying them and the learning aspect that comes along with it!

One of the projects we started and completed before Easter was our Flat Stanley project. This was a 2nd grade tradition here at RTCS that I was not about to let go. This activity is based on the story of Flat Stanley. If you are not familiar with said story, here's the abbreviated version: Flat Stanley gets flattened by a bulletin board falling on him while he is sleeping. The book follows his adventures as his flat self gets to do cool things, including being mailed to visit his relatives! Enter in our project. My 2nd graders made flat/paper versions of themselves then mailed it to friends or relatives. They then took pictures of the flat child doing all sorts of different things, which the students then get mailed back, make into a poster or book, and hang them up at school. It was an awesome project and so fun to get to see where all the flat students went!

Here are 2 of the flat students!

Another project I had my students complete was a sort of mini project. We have been studying various important events in history in both our social studies and reading areas. One of our lessons last week in social studies revolved around the various symbols our country has. I had each student pick one of the symbols we talked about, make their own version of it, and write a paragraph in cursive about why this is an important symbol in America. They were not too thrilled with the cursive aspect of this assignment!

While that part did not excite them, they were ecstatic to get to use their creative energy. The projects ended up looking great! The paragraphs were also wonderful as well, with their cursive skills shining! It made me very proud to look at their beautiful handwriting that they have been acquiring this year.

The American Flag and a Bald Eagle

The Liberty Bell

Our last big project of the year will be the students writing their own book. This one is still in the beginning stages and will require creative thinking and great grammar, along with a lot of patience from myself! It will be a wonderful experience for them and most of my students are really excited!

So now I have my last weeks mapped out, projects wrapping up, and getting to the last chapters in many books. They're getting ready to go! I will say this again and again...I just cannot believe it! I am already reminding myself to cherish each hug and hilarious moments, all the light bulb moments, lessons, and projects, even amongst the days that I am feeling frustrated and/or tired. I love 2nd grade and I love this class. I plan to soak up every moment I can these last 6 weeks!

Table for 1

"Nice to meet you! Are you married?"

"My mom was married by the time she was your age...just saying."

"Why do you not want to get married?"

Yes, these are actual quotes said to me at various points in life. Lovely huh? I've come to appreciate the hilarity and awkwardness that comes along with such marriage related comments.

Why the comments? Well, I am a single, 22 year old girl. Not really a rarity in this world. However, in the culture of young, Dutch, Christian, I guess I may be seen as such.

Now I am not writing this to bash those who have gotten married or engaged. I attended Dordt College, a place where engagements and wedding were frequent. I love being able to see my friends meet their spouses, get married, and even starting families! I am so happy for all of them. Marriage is a beautiful and wonderful thing, created by God. I look forward to that time in my life, if it is God's will for me.

At this moment though, I am a happy single Dutch girl living in Pittsburgh. I am VERY much ok with that! I've had people give me sad looks when they ask about my marital status and I inform them of the lack of a husband. I've even had someone say, "Don't worry, I'm sure someone will come along soon."

Who is worried?

Not this girl. I have learned a lot being on my own, whether it be figuring out insurance and loan stuff or how to talk to car places and have them take a young girl seriously. I've also learned how to navigate around this crazy city (yikes!) and traveled by plane by myself for the first time. Yeah!

I love having the freedom to come out to this new city and just have time to figure out my life, what I want to do with it, and who I want to be. This is now starting to sound like a cliche "I am woman!" speech. Not what I am intending. I just think its important to be able to appreciate being single. I don't know what God's plan for my life is, nor do I want to know.

I am simply enjoying the here and now, as my single self! :)

Yogurt, Guns, and a Happy Easter!

I just returned from my spring/Easter break, which was also a much needed and wonderfully appreciated break! I am also learning to very much appreciate the fact that I am a teacher and still get to take these delightful breaks. Don't even get me started on the thought of summer break! I digress. I am sharing with you a few of my favorite pictures from my week in an attempt to give you a brief overview of my break. Enjoy! 

Frozen Yogurt...that makes it healthier right?

Erika Voskuil and Kim Ingelse are pretty much my adopted sisters. We mock each other mercilessly, quote movies and TV shows, and talk about anything under the sun.  We ventured around Milwaukee Thursday, laughing and being ridiculous in pretty much every store. These are 2 girls who I can pretty much guarantee will make you pee your pants when you hang out with them. I love these 2 a whole bunch, so anytime spent with them is time well spent.

The Flying Onion

Seeing as this past weekend was Easter weekend, I was blessed to be able to spend lots of time with family. I wasn't able to get any pictures from my Jensema gathering on Saturday because I was too busy holding my ADORABLE new 2nd cousin Joshua! I pretty much consider him a pseudo nephew since I don't have any yet. It was great to see them all, especially the precious new addition to our fam jam.

These pictures I do have are a collection that my cousin Lindsey and I took during the Ongna festivities on Easter Sunday. We Ongna's have a little tradition of shooting guns. Strange? Perhaps. Although in Wisconsin, not so much. I snagged the picture above when one of my cousins was chucking an onion in the air while another cousin shot at it. It. Was. Awesome.

Lindsey also got this winner shot of me shooting my first real gun, a 20 gauge. It was my younger cousin Joshua's gun. He told me I could handle it, so I felt relatively confident. It was loud and had a smidge of a kick, but I totally held my own! I didn't hit the target, but that's not what its always about right? So I tell myself...

Tamarah, Lindsey, and I enjoying the very windy outdoors.

The best photo from the 20 we took, believe it or not! 

 And now we come to this picture of awesomeness. These 2 are two of my nearest and dearest friends. I have also known them for my entire life and we get together anytime we can. Anna and Sam met up with me for lunch which resulted in some crazy Wisconsin accents, water being spilled across the table, and some snort filled laughter. We always manage to have a great time! Its like someone hits a refresh button when I meet up with them. They are simply wonderful :)

I end with a picture of my puppy, Pepper. By puppy I mean a 9 year old beagle, but a puppy at heart. No matter how long I've been gone from Wisconsin, I am always greeted by an enthusiastic Pepper, waiting and ready to lick me. I love WI, which I've said like 25 zillion times before. I know, I am getting redundant. Let me just end by saying that I had a great break, I love my family and friends, and I LOVE WISCONSIN.

There. Was that a little too much?

Just the ordinary...

This past week I had nothing super special going on. No one was visiting for the weekend, there were no days off. Nothing absolutely crazy happened at school, there were no special plans for the weekend. It was an ordinary week.

While in the past years of my life, I may have labeled this past week as boring or dull. At this stage in my life, I would like to label it as lovely.

Yes, I said lovely.

Amidst the busy and crazy of adult life, I have come to greatly appreciate a rather uneventful week. I can simply work hard at my job and come home to enjoy my evenings, then do it all again! My students thrive under this kind of week, when we have our normal routine, they know exactly what is coming, and they know exactly what to do throughout the day. I have discovered just how delightful these weeks really are.

I took special notice on Friday of the classroom atmosphere I've worked on creating and the systems I had established. At the beginning of the year, I had to instruct my students on everything. Where to put papers, where to get this or that from, what to do when they were done with an assignment before anyone else, and so on and so forth. Friday I simply watched and enjoyed as I moved from one subject to another and my students simply did what they needed to. Put away certain books, grabbed out other ones, took out pencils, put assignments in the appropriate place, and waited quietly to begin.

It was LOVELY!

This progress isnt simply in their behaviors, but in their school work as well. I have moments like that when I think back to the beginning of the year and how far my students have come. It makes me so ecstatic to see their progress! This is especially evident in my students' reading.

We do a lot of reading throughout the day, whether it be in another subject, me reading out loud, the students reading from the basil reader, or silently to themselves. Well, as of the past few weeks, some of my students have been asking me to make a reading list of great chapters books for them to read for their own personal reading time. I've been pulling books for them, such as "The Mouse and the Motorcycle", "Pippi Longstocking" and "The Littles". I have students running up to me saying  "I just read this part and it is so good!" or "Can't I just read a little bit more, please?!" I love that!

A classic! SO good! And one of my personal favorites.

One of the most rewarding parts of being a 2nd grade teacher specifically is to be able to watch students develop in their reading. My students have grown from reading mostly children's books at the beginning of the year to reading pretty substantial chapter books such as the ones mentioned above. Their excitement for the stories and the characters is phenomenal! To have a role in perking children's interest in reading is unbelievably rewarding and is another one of the million reasons I love this job.