As with many blogs, this one began with the intention of
keeping everyone up to date on the happenings of life in Gasper land. We kind of fell off the wagon of writing
regular updates, but since Christmas time is upon us, this seems like a good opportunity
to give a snapshot of the past six months.
After we moved into the house, we started decorating. Travis set up his man cave upstairs, and I
pretty much took over the rest of the place.
It has been a fun project (although Travis has had to suffer through
numerous trips to Ikea). Here are a few
pictures:
The entry
Where we spend most of our time
The half done game room (notice the picture of Jean Claude Van Damme in the upper right corner)
Our first semesters of school flew by. I have awesome kids who keep me on my toes,
and Travis has a really challenging group of fourth graders. He told me a story the other day that I thought was really
inspiring.
Some of his kids have unique needs and tend to meltdown
easily. Travis is really good at calming
them down, and the other kids have seen him do this. Last week, one student lost it because he
could not find a library book. All the
other kids had left the room to go to the library, but one student came back
because he had forgotten something. This
child has meltdown tendencies as well (major meltdown tendencies).
Travis got really nervous to see him come back to the room since the two
can trigger each other. Much to Travis's surprise, this student went over to the hysterical boy and started patting him
on the back saying, “It’s going to be okay bud, we’ll find your book. It's okay.” The kid completely calmed down, found his
book and went to the library.
Empathy and compassion are not characteristics typically
displayed by 9 year old boys. I thought
it was a great example of how the kids learn by example and then put into
practice what they see modeled. It was a
good reminder to myself to treat my students with as much kindness and respect
as possible. They are always
watching.
All and all, the past 6 months has been filled with good meals with friends and family, game nights, a great Tim Keller Bible study, Parks and Rec episodes and lesson planning. We've been thankful for this season and all its simple moments. Hopefully the next blog post won't be at the end of the school year, but I can't make any promises. Enjoy the rest of 2013!
A few of the simple moments:
Halloween - we went as Tobias and Lindsay from Arrested Development
Our first Christmas Tree
Tacky Sweater Party
Same Party
Turning 30 (Travis did this last year)
My classroom door decorated by super cool students
Double Rainbow!!
