Student Teaching - Week #6

Rebecca Verhage - Walsh Elementary

Middle school students are often pretty good at avoiding schoolwork. Lately, I have heard quite of few stories and off-topic questions designed to distract. Here are some of my favorite comments from the week.

 Boy raises his hand in the back of the classroom while they were doing independent reading. I go over to see if I can help him.

Boy 1: Miss Verhage, did you play sports in high school?

Girl sitting next to him: Yeah, she played volleyball.

Boy 1: Oh, you look like you were a cheerleader.

Boy 2: Where did you get your skirt.

Me: Stop stalling, you know you don’t really want to know.

Boy 2: Yeah, well my mom wants to know.

Miss Verhage, your eyes look like marbles.

Boy 3: Why do you have a scar on your head?

Me: It’s not a scar it’s just where I part my hair.

The Killer Angels - Lifeline Theater

In other news, the art event of this week was a play at the Lifeline Theater up north about the civil war. Based on the topic, I wasn’t all that excited to go to it, but I’m really glad I had. There were ten actors in the play and they each were two or three different characters on either side of the war. I liked how they had a troubadour who played between set changes and during the transitions because it showed the culture of that time period. I suppose music would be a great way to raise the soldiers’ spirits during a long war like that. He also narrated for us giving some extra information about the battle at Gettysburg. My favorite part was one of the last scenes where the confederate army was charging the hill. During this part of the war, the confederates lost many men. In order to show this, the actors had a rack of coats behind them. There were six soldiers, three in front and three in back, along with their commander. As each of them got shot, they dropped their coat, handed their rifle to the man behind, and went to the back to get another coat and join the march again. By the end, there were a good fifteen coats on the ground representing the deaths of those who marched. This was a great visual to me and I appreciated the way they performed the battle in such a small space and with a small crew and were still able to do it justice. I think it helped me to have a better appreciation for what the war was like for those fighting in it and how hard it must have been for those fighting against their own friends.

White Sox game at US Cellular Field

 On Saturday night, La Casa (the apartments where we live), offered students free tickets to go to a White Socks game. We had a really great time. My roommates and I went and we got to know other people from our building which was fun. While none of my roommates or I are really into baseball, it was fun to cheer along with the avid sports fan, help start the wave and sing, “Take me out to the ball game”. One of my roommates is from Singapore so when we all started singing she was shocked saying, “Oh my gosh, you guys have a baseball anthem?”  While most things in the United States are adopted from other country and cultures that we immigrants have come from, baseball is truly an American sport and it was great to be at the stadium on Saturday!

With Trinity roommates at Navy Pier

With La Casa roommates at Sox game

One thing I have really enjoyed about being in Chicago is its proximity to my home college. This weekend, I had a couple of my old college friends drive downtown and spend the afternoon with me. We walked around Michigan Avenue, got lunch and strolled down Navy Pier. It was a beautiful day in the Windy City and it was good to catch up with some of my old roommates. Then to top it off, my new roommate and I went to church together on Sunday and then got dollar gelatos afterward for a treat. It has become a Sunday tradition for us and a good time to catch up on what’s been happening in each other’s lives. I have really appreciated the friendships I have built while being here this semester. In fact, as we were leaving the baseball stadium, my roommates and I were goofing around and another guy from our building commented that “you guys are like family.” I’m glad he saw that in us because that’s the way I feel about them. In one short month, I have grown to love these girls and I am glad for the opportunity to get to know them better throughout the semester.