I love the beginning of the school year. I love the smell of new crayons in my art box, sharpening tons of pencils in preparation, testing all the new markers, seeing all the notebooks (this year I chose yellow, blue, gray green)waiting to be written in. Every year I'd get an anxious, butterfly feeling in my stomach the night before school- every year! Elementary, middle, high school, college... it wasn't ever a nervous feeling, it was always an "I'm-so-excited-I-can't-sleep-cuz-tomorrow's-Christmas!" feeling. And I get to have that feeling for the rest of my life!
What actually prompted me to write this though (cuddled up in my bed with my school books next to me, writing in my yellow notebook ... which will then be transferred to typed blog...) was writing my name on everything. As a student, it's important to label all your things; as a teacher it's like 10 times as important- and even then, I usually find a student that's been using my crayons or a pencil of mine for a month- if they didn't lose them the first day :) But I digress! :)
Writing my name. I love it. I love my name. I love that I can write it out really fancy- Miss Vander Ploeg- and I love that I can write it quickly- Miss VP- and still find identity in those two letters. I love that the things in the classroom are mine and that I can take on a whole different personalitly as TEACHER and have this other secret, very effective name. :)
I think I've mentioned that I've always wanted to be a teacher, so when I was little I'd always daydream abotu when I was older and a real teacher with my own classroom. I'd decided at some point that in college I'd have to "change" my name to just Laura because it sounded more mature... sorry younger version, I couldn't do it! But I also assumed that when I was a teacher, I'd of course also have to be married and so I'd have a different last name. It's kind of an interesting thing to not know who you're going to be in the future. Of course I'd try on the occasional Mrs. McKinley and even less occasionally I might throw in a Mrs. Corlew but... I didn't really know. So I'd just settle with Mrs. Something. It cut out a lot of pretend school in my head. Your name is a VERY important part of your classroom. It gives authority- strikes fear into your students when needed (I'm going to have to tell Miss VP about your behavior at recess), but also gives a sense of belonging, comfort, and love (Who's your teacher? Miss Vander Ploeg!) -- Did you notice I used Miss VP in those examples? I'm not a Mrs. Something. :) And I'm happy for that. There are plenty of reasons for wanting to be married, but changing my name is not one of them. I love it. I have many great memories as LBVP or Miss VP. I don' tthink I'm ready to get rid of it yet (not that I really have any other options at the moment :)) But anyway, I'm excited for a new year and new students, new challenges and surprises, new friendships and experiences ... but I'm gonna do all the new things with an old, well-used, loved, comfortable name. :)
Have a great school year!
~ Miss Vander Ploeg :)
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I liked that post! I could identify with it and at the same time I was a little sad that my name has already changed to the one you cherish so. I like being a VanderPloeg and being able to write VP too, but I DO NOT like being a Mrs. (makes me sound old and boring.) Because I live in the south now, everyone is referred to as Miss or Ms. So I end up getting called Miss Kassi. I don't think anyone expects me to be married and I like to go by my first name, so Mrs. Kassi just sounds weird. I did have my maiden name put on both of my college diplomas and they even announced "Kassi Joy Hetletvedt VanderPloeg" as I crossed the stage. Still, when thinking about if I were ever to become "Dr. Kassi" I would be torn as to what my professional name would be. I think Dr. Hetletvedt-VanderPloeg would be cool. :)
ReplyDeleteLaura Beth, a very sweet name, I love reading your blogs. I know you are enjoying your work and I know you aare loving it. Keep up the good work. We just pray that you will stay healthy. We are doing quite well. Sundays are rather slow and quiet around here. Henry just went to see a movie, which is available every Sun. Afternoon. I usually lissten to some music, read or do some hand work. We love being here. We are taken care of very well. Both of us had our cataracts removed and now we are waiting for new glasses. Keep up your good work.
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