The good, the bad, and the ugly

I will first admit that during the last year of college I often debated whether or not teaching was the correct career choice. I never realized how much work went into teaching. You are not just in charge of making sure 120 students behave during the day, pay attention, and pass all the state tests.  You also have to create "creative" lesson plans that match all the state standards for each class you teach, create another set of assignments for students who need modifications, and finally grade all the assignment, record the scores and put them into the computer. And then you get to start all over again. The truth is, it was not the show up and hang out with teenagers job I thought it was, but it is very rewarding like I though it would be. Nonetheless like every job, there is good, there is bad, and there is ugly.

The good: I Have some marvelous students who at the end of a long day make it well worth it. It is the little comments from the students like " Oh I finally get it" or " I have never liked English until now". Or the comments from parents at parent teacher conference "My daughter comes home from school so happy and she tells me it is because of your class" or "I hear you are the funniest teacher here" or the simple "Thank you for being such a great teacher". Or my favorite comment that came in a little note stuck to my computer after class that said To: Mrs. Berg  and inside read "How are you doing? How are you feeling? You are an awesome teacher, and I am so excited to have you all three tri's. I hope you will be my best friend that is a teacher. You are awesome. Love..." These simple comments make it all worth it. And yes I will be your best friend that is a teacher.

The bad: First of all I had this crazy idea that all students somewhat cared about getting good grades. FALSE. Some do not care at all and just getting them to pick up a pencil and write their name on the paper is a huge accomplishment. Along with that 7th graders tend to blurt out things. They are not afraid to share their opinion about how what we are doing is "so stupid" or "pointless". They also tend to blurt things out about their life that I don't think their families would like them too. I sometimes feel like I know a little to much about their home life and sometimes it breaks my heart to learn what these students have to go through. I was very blessed as a child to have a secure home to back me up. Also 7th graders love to talk and talk and talk some more. Sometimes the only way I can get them to calm down is to allow story time where they can tell me all about their day. And the "rock that was shaped like a heart" that they saw on there way to school. OH COOL I really wanted to know about that rock. I guess this could go under the good category but there is never a dull moment and they definitely keep me entertained.

The ugly: "Mrs. Berg, you have a double chin". Thank you for pointing out the fact that my working out goal is not being accomplished. Turns out however they were talking about the dimple in my chin, that I inherited from my father. :)
"Mrs. Berg here is the fly I just killed and I am going to continue putting in your face, even though you have told me throw it away 10 times and to sit down". It was so fun calling the mother after that and explaining that your student would not keep a fly out of my face during the spelling test today.

Don't get me wrong,  I love my job and the students and often come home tired but with a smile on my face. And surprisingly I have not been brought to tears yet, like I was warned would happen my first year. So I guess even though I really doubted this career in the end it was the correct choice for me.

GO DUCKS!

Due to the fact that we live in Idaho we get a one week harvest break from school. I begged Kevin to take me somewhere over harvest but he happened to get two jobs that had to start that week. However on Monday we found out that he would still have the weekend off. We attempted to get tickets to the Oregon vs Cal game but we were a little late and Papa Staceys tickets were already called for. Kevin then made a quick phone call and found out he had the next weekend off and Oregon had another game. So we quickly planned for a quick trip to Oregon. I was able to have another teacher cover my last two hours on Friday and Kevin got off at two and we took off. We drove for 10 hours to Bend Oregon and got in about midnight. Slept in a little bit and then went on a drive up the butte to see a beautiful view of bend, then to  the duck store to buy gear for the "black out" game, and went and wondered around the Nike store.

We then made the beautiful drive from Bend to Eugene which took about 2 hours. In Eugene we met up with Pat and Stacey for a yummy dinner at PF Changs and then walked over to the stadium. Kevin was all giddy of course and so we walked around and waited for some of the players to walk by and of course Chip Kelly. Kevin was all smiles and I will admit I was too. The game was great. Their was ups and downs in the game but luckily more ups! It rained a little but stayed a decent temperature throughout the game. And YAY for Oregon winning 41-27. The win made the whole trip worth it.


The game got over about midnight and we got to our cars about 12:45, stopped and ate quickly and began the drive home. We were exhausted, it started pouring, it was foggy, we were in dark mountains, and we were miserable. What was supposed to be a 2 hour drive ended up almost 3 and we got back to our hotel at about 3:45 a.m. We were tired and Kevin even made the comment that he didn't even want to brush his teeth, and if you know Kevin (the future dentist) that is very rare! Well we had a good nights rest and drove the 10 hours back to Rexburg Sunday.  In the end it was a long drive but SO worth it! We really enjoyed the game, seeing Pat and Stacey and getting to spend time together while driving. And in case anyone was wondering a cow is a female, a bull is a male, and cattle is the generic term. (This conversation may have occupied us for an hour or two of our drive).

GO DUCKS!

Last splash of summer

Before school started Kevin and I wanted to do one more fun adventure. So we called up some neighbors from our ward and invited them to Fall Creek.

Fall creek is about an hour South east of Rexburg and right before Swan Valley. The best part about these waterfalls is you do not just look at them you get to play in them. You can climb down them and play under and around them. The climbing down part was a little difficult considering one of the couples had their two year old son. But once we got down we enjoyed the water and the beauty of the falls. I won't be saying this once it starts snowing, but I LOVE IDAHO! 

9/11

As Kevin and I were discussing the terrible events that occurred 10 years ago today I realized I have never taken the time to write down my memories of that day.

I was in the 6th grade. Kelsey a good friend of mine had told everyone on the bus that an airplane had hit a big building. I had no idea what the big building was and figured it was just a plane crash and like most of the other kids on the bus did not take her seriously. By the time I got into first hour which was Mr. Moratska's P.E class he informed us what was going on. I remember him saying "You will always remember that you were in PE when you were told about the 9/11 attacks". He was correct. I can even remember where I was sitting. The rest of the day however, is kind of a blur. We watched footage in each of my classes and did not do much work. Still confused about what these big towers were I remember going home and asking my mom "What was going on". I was scared and very sad but to be honest I was not really affected by the attacks personally until 3-4 years later when my brother in-law did his first tour over in Iraq.  Now ten years later he is on his third tour and I like many others are still feeling the affects of that day. So thank you Nathan and everyone else who has risked there lives to keep America the land of the free.

Washers

No no no I am not talking about the wonderful machines that we all have a love/hate relationship with. You know the ones that clean our clothes but require lots of work. Instead I am talking about a family game that Kevin kindly requested to my parents that they "leave it to us in their will". So let me explain the game. There are 2 long wood board that is about 4 feet long. There are three holes in each board. You separate them and then you stand at one and throw giant washers into the holes.

A couple Sundays ago I was craving washers, so I broke it out and we had a little family competition. It was one of those days that you just have to take a step back and look at the scene to see how blessed you are. I have an amazing family, the weather was great, and the game was fun. Perfect!

While watching Kevin and Kenzie dominate everyone, I decided to record Carson and his animal noises. Cute huh!

Hanging with my girls

So before school started I wanted to do one last thing with the nieces. So Kevin agreed to take us all to the drive in. So we filled up my dads pickup with foam and pillows and blankets, bought some candy and headed to the movie. The girls had a lot of fun and 2 of them even made it through both movies. Kevin and I sat in the mountaineer and let them have the pickup to themselves. 

I told them to act scared

Ice Caves Adventure

One saturday we were in need of an adventure. And since Kevin had never been to the ice caves we decided it was the perfect adventure. When we arrived we were the only ones there. We were able to take our time and spend some quality ice sliding time in the cave before anyone else arrived. Overall a great saturday adventure.