BY HELINDA VANDERKOOI, ACS PARENT Middle school…yikes! I heard stories from parents about middle school. Claims like: your kids don’t need you as much in middle school, hardly any parents come to chapel, the teachers don’t want your help, the kids ignore and avoid you. With all this chatter I was not looking forward to the [...]
I remember it like it was yesterday. Grade 9 Band Tour. My suitcase was packed. We got on the bus at night. I was nervous. We were going to drive through the night and arrive in Alberta the next day. I remember the sun was just starting to go down, the smell of fresh fallen [...]
Feathers floated through the air; strands of wig hair lay scattered on the ground. Kids were running around in circles practising a classmate’s fish swim move, and the one counter space left in my classroom had become an apparent make-up station. My classroom resembled anything but a learning environment. “Mrs. Barthel, I can’t find [...]
I really do not like being wrong. Actually, I think this is a common attribute of all sinful humanity. However, in all honesty, I really do not like to make mistakes. Please note: when I am proven wrong, I think I am pretty good at admitting that I made a mistake, but it is my [...]
Every year for the past five, I have set myself a goal on my birthday; I try to run as many laps around the track at Robert Bateman Secondary School as I am years old. (I have to give credit to Vince Van Dyk for this idea.) Since passing the “half-century” mark, this is becoming [...]
“Can I get your autograph?” This was different. Pig tails, braids, smiling faces, toothless welcoming grins reached out their pieces of paper towards us. “You’re the government! Can we get your autograph? ” I stifled a laugh, smiled back, looked over at my newly met colleague, shrugged, pulled out a pen, and signed away. I [...]
BY: SALLY VAN GEEST, GRADE 6 TEACHER I am not a musical person. I can’t clap to the beat, piano lessons were lost on me, I never learned to play the recorder, and I just don’t get rhythm. Musical rhythm, that is. What I do understand is the rhythm of the school year. It flows [...]
It’s the end of the day. I have survived my day of teaching a variety of subjects to multiple groups of middle school kids. The last class I taught managed to get the room all cleaned up before first bell; you’ll understand the joy of this if you have ever had to teach art to [...]
As I looked around the room last weekend, enjoying a breakfast for all of the Dordt College grads, I realized I was quite obviously the most senior person graduating. After a few years of hard work, I was graduating with my master’s degree. I had taken the opportunity to attend the ceremony in Sioux Center, [...]
They sat in front of me grimacing. We had been learning how to play band instruments for a few weeks and I just announced it was going to be time for a “check in,” as I call them. I probably could have called the “check in” a marshmallow, or a chocolate bar and they wouldn’t [...]
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