My First Season

As of two days ago, I got hired as the JV volleyball coach at Crossroads Charter Academy in Big Rapids. The previous coach is a college student who has a Ferris class that conflicts with too many of the games; she had the option to co-coach or step down. She stepped down and so they gave me a call. Although this position came on rather quickly (try-outs started today), I am so very glad to be doing SOMETHING with my time! We are all moved in to our house, well the downstairs looks lived in, and have even painted our bedroom, put in a new bathroom faucet, etc. There's not much left for me to do except sit around and stare at my curtainless windows and wonder, "Hmmm. What color curtains should I get? Should they have a pattern? Which is cheaper, buying them or making them myself?" you know--big questions in life... Riiiiiiiight. Now I have a little bit more purpose when I get out of bed each day. :)

Yesterday was full of phone calls to the athletic director and varsity coach ironing out practice times/details for the remainder of the week. Oh yes, and trying to figure out if I actually got a para pro job in the elementary building so they could post the coaching job internally and make everyone's life easier. I've called several times and left a message about that, but still no news. It'd be helpful to know if I'm going to be teaching in less than a month or if I need to start looking for a job elsewhere before all the Ferris students come back. As far as practice today, the head coach had try-out practice all planned out for so all I had to do was show up, run drills, and informally evaluate the girls' skills. Kinda nice when I found out only two days ago that I was even coaching a team! I could barely sleep last night because my mind was buzzing with ideas for drills, plays, and team building exercises to implement in the upcoming season.

When I got to the gym this morning, the smell of the newly varnished floor, the smell of new volleyball leather, and the intense humidity brought back so many memories of high school sports in the fall! I loved it! I got there at 8am and the girls filtered in and all arrived by 8:30 when try-outs started. We did basic skills training all morning when around 9:30 we got an unexpected and slightly scary surprise. The girls were lined up on the sideline to practice shuffling under the net when one of the juniors fell backwards with a loud thud. I watched this happen and much to my horror she started seizing! The girls around her backed up and said, "Uhhh, coach!" The varsity coach and I immediately ran over to her as her eyes flickered open and she sat up looking very confused. We sent the rest of the team for a drink break while we tended to the fallen player. She had started feeling nauseous then blacked out and didn't remember what happened. She said that it had never happened to her before. I asked if she ate breakfast, which she had. The gym wasn't overly hot. She played basketball and attended open gyms all summer so it wasn't the stress of the drill. Scary. We took her to the sidelines and sat her down while the varsity coach called her mom. She was really scared and so disappointed because she told me she had been so excited for the first day of volleyball. I tried to comfort her the best I could but then we had to get back to the rest of the team. I talked with her mom briefly when she got there and explained what happened. Mom took her to the ER no questions asked. Not what I had quite planned on seeing the first day, but things happen. And I really hope she is okay.

Overall practice went well, but there are quite a few girls trying out. So many so that we---I----will probably have to make a few cuts. **Wince.** While I've never actually had to go through this process as a coach, I've been through it as a player and it's nerve wracking no matter what. I guess I'm going to compare it to parent teacher conferences. Those I have done. You've got to talk to all the parents (just like I have to talk to all the players) by starting with strengths/positives and gently, delicately introduce the negatives/weaknesses. I guess I just don't want to be the one to make a 14 year old girl's high school days miserable then carry around bitterness towards all athletics her whole life because she got cut in 9th grade. Now that I'm on the coaching end of things, it seems so harsh to cut a girl because she hasn't had the proper training. I've got a lot of freshman coming out for the JV team (because there is no freshman team) and most of them haven't been taught the right form and technique of how to pass, set, hit, and serve. Cuts are tomorrow... How do I decide who to keep and who to let go after two days of try-outs? Some have horrible form/skills and flail arms wildly no matter what the task. Others laugh when I give feedback and correct form. Right now it's hard to know who just hasn't had the time to develop their skills and who just doesn't really care. I have a feeling there's a little bit of both right now.

I'm excited to be in a leadership role. I'm excited to be around volleyball and coach it and teach it and be passionate about it. I'm excited to get to know a whole new group of young ladies and be a positive influence. I'm excited to lead a team of young athletes through a fun and challenging season. I'm excited to gain coaching experience and grow and be challenged.

"Cute" clothes

There's something I've been meaning to make a quick note of for a few weeks now. That is the fact that a few Saturdays ago at a retirement party, a lady/co-worker at Burton Elementary complimented me on my shirt then added, "But you always have cute clothes on!" to which my coordinating teacher heartily agreed. Now to me this was quite an alarming exclamation because I have always very much been the jeans, t-shirt, and tennis shoes girl. That's pretty much all I wore in high school and my first two years in college. Nobody complimented me on my consistent "cute" wardrobe back then because I had no wardrobe.

To hear that compliment was rather surprising and marks a huge milestone in my dressing abilities. This has probably been the best dressed year of my life thus far because I had to dress up for school/teaching every day. A requirement Zach was pleased with. It's true that you do feel better about yourself and more confident when you are dressed nicely. I suppose I am moving on to a new phase of life in my sense of style and ability to always wear "cute" clothes. But part of me is a little sad to let the jeans and tees go. That was my comfortable, athletic identity. Sporty Sarah Thorne with her hair forever in a ponytail. Losing that means losing a bit of my athletic side. Changing to the "cute" side is like a sign that that part of my life is over. Teaching has taken over and therefore a whole new set of clothes too.

Most people I met this year were shocked to know I was a tri-sport athlete in high school and played college volleyball. Then I when they learned that I love backpacking and the outdoors they got another surprise. Apparently, clothes can conceal a lot about a person - or show a lot too.

So for now I guess I have to be content to be the girl with the "cute" clothes who actually wishes she were wearing jeans and a t-shirt.

Good Friday

Good Friday.

Ironic that it's called "Good" Friday -- the day Jesus died. Today I sat down and read the crucifixion account from all 4 gospels. I've never done that before. Each one has its own voice and own point of view that results in a well rounded picture of what happened. Every year at Easter I think back to the first and only time I watched The Passion of the Christ. I was at the theater with Zach and my parents and I just cried and cried. My tears were hot with anger because I wanted the soldiers to stop beating Him and the crowd to stop mocking Him... But He had to do it. "Not my will, but yours be done." He had to do it so that mankind could be reconciled to God -- so that I could be reconciled to God.

Praise God that even while we were still sinners, Jesus died for us!

"But He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by His wounds we are healed."

language

Ahhh. I got the best call this morning. NO SCHOOL! SNOW DAY! That's the only reason I have time to sit and write this. When Zach went out to scrape off his truck this morning he had to come back in and get a broom because the snow is so deep! At least 8-10 inches fell last night! Well, I plan on being productive today - cleaning, grocery shopping, christmas shopping, paper writing... we'll see how much gets done.

Most of my (Sarah's) posts have been about school. Not surprising since that is where I spend nearly all my time. My students say hilarious things on a daily basis. Two of which happened on Wednesday. The first comment happened while I was on recess duty. A girl in kindergarten likes to follow me around and hug me and talk to me because her older bother is in my class. At one point, she stopped talking and looked up at me and said, "You look like Goldilocks." It made me smile. The second comment of the day which was funnier by far came from a little boy in math class. I wore a long sweater with a belt over the top in an attempt to look trendy. The students were lining up to switch back to their own classroom and I standing at the front of the line. A little girl in the front of the line took my hand and said, "I like your anillo (ring)." The boy behind her looked at me and said, "I like your seatbelt." Seatbelt? Well, I guess I can see that. :)

Yesterday, my coordinating teacher (CT) and I had 3 initial child study meetings. Child Study meetings are used for creating intervention strategies for specific students who are struggling academically or behaviorally or both. The student's teacher, parents, principal, special education teacher, school psychologist, and the school/community relations chair. I went to 2 out of the 3 because I had to teach during one of the meetings. For the first meeting, the mom is a native English speaker and her son looks just like her. They have the same eyes, freckles, and way of speaking. Her son is REALLY struggling academically, has speech problems, among some possible mental things going on. The kid is so sweet and tries hard but his home life isn't helping. Aside from the time she laughed a few times, mom just sat there and stared at the floor. Her son missed over a month of school in kindergarten. That's too much to miss in the early years of school because they learn so much about letters and letter sounds, exactly what he struggles with. When asked why he missed so much school, mom said she overslept then just didn't bring him in to school. A teacher from his preschool also recommended that he be placed in a program for preschool impaired children to give him extra help to catch him up and give him extra attention. She didn't enroll him there. They don't really do anything at home to help him, no reading together or practicing numbers. The little books we send home each month for kids to read with their parents stay in his folder and never get read. Mom said she doesn't work so it's not a time issue. I think she's just lazy and her son is suffering from it. This kid needs support at home and school and he's not getting it at home. Maybe mom stared at the floor because she realized the impact her choices had on her son... I don't really know.

Well, of the two meetings that I sat in, there could not be different parents - well, different moms I should say because the dads didn't come. The mother of this child spoke Spanish very well. *Sidenote: I love that I can understand what the mom was saying without the need of the translator. Of course we have a translator in each meeting because not all the staff at my school speaks Spanish, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE that I can speak another language. It makes me feel more useful. My heart is dying to go to live in a Spanish speaking country so I can become verbally fluent... my comprehension is good, my speaking is bad.* Her and her husband are so involved in their son's academic life even though they speak no English. He brings home. He brings home his little books and reads to them even though they can't understand. At parent teacher conferences, they asked us to grade his homework and send it home again so he could fix his mistakes and keep improving. The topic that kept coming up at conferences and during this meeting was that this little boy is so so very timid. He rarely raises his hand and keeps all speaking to a minimum. Over Thanksgiving break, mom said they had a conversation with their son about his timidity. She asked why he doesn't raise his hand. He said he was afraid that the teacher was going to punish him and scold him if he got the wrong answer! Mom and dad then told him no! that's not the case! Teachers are there to help you learn and they will not punish you if you get the answer wrong. They told him to try raising his hand more. And what do you know? This week he raised his hand more than I had ever seen!!! I tried to call on him whenever he did because he usually never does! His mom and dad are trying their best to have him practice his numbers and letters and words at home. His mom told us that he wants to be a doctor when he grows up. I wouldn't be surprised. He is so caring and hardworking. We encouraged mom to keep this goal in mind - the world needs more bilingual doctors!

learning.

This week has been all about learning. Surprise, surprise I know seeing as how I'm a student-teacher and all. Last Friday, I learned how to handle conflict with students and send them to the office and converse with the principal. Monday I attended the student teacher Fire Up! Conference held at Aquinas College and learned all kinds of useful information in sessions such as: Can I Take my Christian Faith into a Public School?, Special Education and the General Education Teacher, Reducing Teacher Talk (which was hilarious), Supporting English Language Learners, and Parent Communication Dos and Don'ts. I got to practice the Parent Communication tips on Wednesday when I had to sent a certain student back to the office... this time, his mom came in and wanted an explanation from me why her son keeps getting sent to the office. So, I sat in the principal's office with the principal, the student, and the student's mother -- talk about slightly intimidating for a student teacher who has barely gotten her feet wet! This little "meeting" went well. The mother has unrealistic expectations for what she wants to happen with her son (example, she wants him in special ed. even though he's really smart) and she is in denial that he needs testing for ADHD. She's one of those parents who you have to take by the hand and lead towards every step in a process because she is not proactive. She expects everyone to come to her and cater to her so she doesn't have to lift a finger.

I guess I could rant and rave about ridiculous parents all day, but for me the highlight of this little experience (yes, there is a highlight in all this mess!), was that the whole thing took place in 95% Spanish conversation. The principal, mom, student, switched in and out of English and Spanish and I knew exactly what was going on the whole time. Knowing another language is SO COOL! I loved sitting there listening to a conversation about one of my students while the parent and principal spoke in Spanish. I could even tell that the principal is from Puerto Rico because of the way she speaks her Spanish (I later confirmed it with another teacher). It's amazing to think that the human brain can learn a whole new set of vocabulary, phrases, sentence structures, and sounds and actually communicate in that new language. It's amazing. What's more amazing is that there are students who come to our schools from various countries in Africa who can speak 5 or 6 languages!!! LANGUAGES!!! This boggles my mind. I'm convinced that learning to speak multiple languages is its own intelligence.

What's hard at Burton Elementary, and probably every school with 2nd or 3rd generation Spanish-speakers, is that the students begin to lose their Spanish by middle school. They are so pushed so hard to learn English (which is a great skill, especially if you live in the United States) that they forget their Spanish. They can no longer communicate with parents and grandparents and it's really sad. It creates a generational breakage, a language barrier, that separates families. I compliment them whenever I can that speaking two languages is a great skill to have and not to forget their Spanish.

Here's a couple of my little intelligent students.

Drama in the 1st grade.

Friday was a rough day at school. To start off the day, there was a substitute teacher and two of my students reacted very negatively. To make a long story short, I dealt with them all day and exhausted all my options and then had to send them to the office to chat with the principal. One student exploded in anger, yelled at me, then ran away down the hallway. Eventually I found her and she stomped down to the office. In all that mess I got called, "mean," "tattletale teacher" and accused of "not caring," --- all by a 6-year-old. More like an old soul trapped in a 6-year-old's body as the principal described her. And it's true. That little girl has gone through more crap than I want to know. Her home life is a wreck. All of her siblings have different dads; there have been multiple step-dads in the picture; and now mom lives with a boyfriend. This 6-year-old is dealing with the effects. She's emotionally distraught, cries all the time, and can't even verbalize what is the matter when she is upset. Behaviorally, she refuses to participate with the class. She gets out of her seat and wanders around often, doesn't do her work, and runs away when she gets overwhelmed or feels singled out. Academically, she's low. Very low. Writing her name is still a struggle; her fine motor skills are weak; and reading is almost impossible because she doesn't know what sound each letter makes. And the little boy? His attention span is shorter than that of a goldfish because all he does is play GameCube and nintendoDS all day - he plays it so much in the morning that he is late for school! This kid is falling behind because his mom doesn't have the guts to step up and be his parent. There is no filter between his brain and his mouth so he just shouts out in the middle of class. He swears and calls other kids gay. He's always in his own little world and his mom punishes him by keeping him home from school. Now I could care less about being called mean or a tattletale teacher. It stung for sure, but what upset me the most was the environment her mom is raising her in. If only parents had to come to school and deal with the child they raised... do they not see the tangled mess of a child they created?! Let them try and teach her something. Teaching. If only it were that easy to just teach. Learning and teaching is on the back burner when I as a teacher am forced to be a psychologist, parent, and counselor. Teachers are INCREDIBLY underpaid.

                            

GO GREEN!

          In case you didn't know, MSU beat the UofM yesterday for the second year in a row!!! This is a historic win seeing as how MSU hasn't beat UofM 2 years in a row since the Johnson administration... Unfortunately most of West Michigan are U of M fans so we were quite outnumbered in our joy at church this morning. The pastor even thought it necessary to make a comment about his disappointment with the outcome of the game. He said - and I quote - "Spartan fans are like new money. They're just obnoxious!" Yep. He said that. We did not laugh. Anyways, we went to East Lansing on Friday night for AGR's annual Hog Roast. All the proceeds went to support Michigan AgriAbility. (It's an organization that helps disabled farmers.) We ate some delicious pork and cheesy potatoes and got to talk and catch up with some of Zach's fraternity brothers. We had planned to watch the game in East Lansing with friends ... but that doesn't work out so well when you realize most of your friends no longer live there... it was a bit of a wake up call that things are different once again. Graduating college is bittersweet. It's much like graduating high school because you are SO SAD to leave the incredible friends you made but also excited for the new friends that God will provide. Right now it's kinda hard...I miss my old friends.

            Last week Friday we went on our first date since we have been married - and we went to the circus! Ha ha. Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey's was in town at the VanAndel Area and I got tickets through my elementary school so we decided to go. Zach had never been to a circus and I haven't been since I was a small child. It had your typical weird things like people who can bend in every-which direction and ladies who twirled around by their hair way up in the air. But there were also some pretty sweet things. Take the acrobats for example who flip around on the flying trapeze; they are amazing! I told Zach that I wanted to take up that profession and he said no. The best thing was probably an act where they put 7 motocross motorcycles in a steel-cage ball and they all drove around in circles at the same time. It was crazy. Here's a picture and in case you don't believe us.

On Sunday Zach's mom and dad came over to our apartment for the first time. We have their approval, so this is good. :) After relaxing for awhile we went downtown GR to take in some of the crazy ArtPrize artwork. ArtPrize is a huge program put on by the city or Grand Rapids. Thousands of artists from all over the country entered in their pieces and placed them all over downtown. There is a giant table and chairs on top of a bridge, paintings on the sides of buildings, sculptures attached to fences, a giant floating Nessie in the river, and all kinds of crazy artsy things. People can walk around to look at the pieces and then vote on their favorite. They have narrowed it down to the Top 10 and voting will continue for a few more weeks before they decide on the winner. This moose made entirely out of nails was one of our favorites and I believe he made it into the Top 10. I have also included Nessie and the table & chairs.