first dance

Several weeks ago, we took Haven to her "first dance" at Pekin High School. Now before I get naysayers out there about to judge me for exposing my daughter to a dance with high schoolers (TRUST me, I know what high school dances are like), this dance was quite different...

The PCHS Student Council puts on their annual Senior Citizens Prom every spring & invites older couples from the community in for a night of dancing-real band, real music & refreshments! It's great...way better than a high school dance! The attendees get all dressed up and as soon as The Nostalgics hit their first note, away they dance-and such great dancers they are. As the evening wears on, the high school kids take their turns dancing (and learning) from their guests-it's great to see such interaction.

here's Haven dancing with a co-worker for ours & Stuco adviso, Colleen...she LOVES her!

Haven also making her rounds to those waiting for the dance to start...she showed them all her tricks! One older lady had asked me, "How old is she?"...and of course, Haven beat me to the punch, promptly showing her 1 finger :)

this is another friend of Haven's, Jake, who is on Daddy's Stuco exec. board

and my favorite picture of the night!
Haven got her very own saxophone solo while she was on the dance floor-I love it!

it's back

So I have been putting off this post for several days...

1. maybe hoping it wouldn't happen
2. anxious/anticipating its happening
3. nervous about if I'd be ready for it to happen
4. trying for one sweet, last summer day to escape to "ideal" world and not reality

...but without further ado, it's here...and the "it" is school. Don't get me wrong-we've had a blessed, fun-filled summer, with lots of traveling friend and family time, remodeling, and just about everything else you can fit in a summer of 2 1/2 months but well, yeah know, as an educator, one is usually never ready to go back. New students, new relationships, new challenges, new joys...the unknown. We survived several hours of back-to-school meetings, setting up our classrooms (a new, much bigger one for Mrs. Miller), Dragon Day (the freshman welcome Mr. Miller is in charge of), and now our first full day with all our students. Both of us are continuing to teach both U.S. History & World History so that hasn't changed yet we are already finding ourselves longing for our summer days when we get to selfishly choose what to do vs. the grueling/demanding pace of teenagers & education...oh, we are so human! The rest of my blogging friends are thinking "good, those Millers finally have to go back & do what the rest of the world does-serves them right!" but until you're an educator, it's just not the same....so thanks for listening to me, thanks for your prayers, and here go Mr. & Mrs. Miller off to another year of educating our youth :)

Millers + 11 PCHS students = FUN!

The week of March 29 - April 2 found us traveling to D.C. with a great group of PCHS students to attend Close-Up D.C. Academy. The kids got to sight-see, meet their Congressmen, attend workshops, and see the politics of our beautiful nation's capital well, Up-Close :) The Presidential & war memorials, Holocaust Museum, the Smithsonian Museums, Arlington Cemetary, and Capital Hill Day (pictured) were some of the many highlights. One of Mrs. Miller's highlights was the fact our Close-Up week fell on National Cherry Bloosom Festival which meant the trees around D.C. were in beautiful full bloom! It was spectacular! While we came back with almost 1000 pictures, I'm just going to post this one as the credit for a great group goes to our wonderful students. We were so proud of each of them as they were the cream-of-the crop from schools around the nation that week. They lead discussions, wrapped up moderations, and were overall the leaders other students looked to...thanks for making the Millers & PCHS proud!

SNOW DAY!

Wahoo! When you're a teacher or a student, there are NO better words than receiving a phone call to let you know school has been canceled :)

[Please remind me of this however by about oh, June 1st or so]

Arlan and I have spent the day catching up on few things around the house, reading books, and lounging. I'll admit not a lot has been accomplished on Robin Ave. today!

I have great memories as a child in NW Iowa & having Mom come in & tell us these glorious words because as geography & weather attests up north, we heard NO SCHOOL fairly frequent. In fact, my alma mater has several snow days built in to their school year (I think it was 5) and only if you exceed that amount do you then make up days at the end of the year. My senior year we exceeded plenty ensuring the seniors had to come back after graduation to take finals...yep, we only got a diploma cover & NO diploma at the big ceremony :)

Other great snow day memories include:

• going sledding with the town kids down down the viaduct near Lester...we'd literally brave some pretty incredible conditions to get outside & play
• playing hours of Monopoly at my cousins...in fact, if the weather was really badl, the Monopoly game board would stay in the exact location for a day or more & my cousin Curt would keep a running tally of debts owed to other players for property-it was GREAT!

So...any snow day memories out there to share? I'd love to hear them!

freshman funny...

Students were instructed to work on their map projects tracing & drawing routes during the Age of Exploration (Columbus, Magellan, etc.)...with 5 minutes of class time left, a freshman boy raises his hand:

Student (going through puberty freshman boy, football player, usually out in lah-lah land):
Mrs. Miller...I talked with one of my friends about you today...

Mrs. Miller (YIKES! Who is his friend & what in heck were they talking about me for): Really? What were you talking about? (I'm pretty daring huh?)

Student: He said you are the smiliest teacher he knows...you're always smiling.


Mrs. Miller (thinking "really? I don't smile when you don't do your work & you're clearly trying to get out of it"): Really? I'm always smiling huh?

Student (nodding in agreement): Yep, my friend says you can even smile while writing a detention...a genuine smile too!


By then I WAS smiling...that could be the comment/compliment of the week!

Whew...Homecoming is over!

Well, we survived...barely, but we survived another homecoming...from the float building, class games, the parade, the game, the dance - all of it is pretty fun, a bit stressful and very exciting to be finished. Here are some pictures of the week...enjoy!

All the lady Social Studies teachers created "Suffragetes" t-shirts in honor of class color days (teachers wore orange). Suffragetes were women who either helped women earn suffrage or advance womens' political & social standings.

And here is our uhm, backsides (might I add this was humbling to actually post)...we all chose a woman in history and put the # to honor the date they achieved their historic importance. I chose Susan B. Anthony and thus we all provided a teaching moment for our students!

Thursday night - our Homecoming Court after the powder puff game & class games.

The traditional tug-of-war game at class games...the junior boys BEAT the senior boys!

PCHS staff getting painted up for spirit day!

Mr. & Mrs. Miller on spirit Friday!

Choir kids during the Friday afternoon parade...the weather was beautiful!

Sophomore football team

Isn't the tough dragon cool? It even has smoke coming out of its nose!

Mr. & Mrs. after a long afternoon/evening enjoying the first half of the football game; unfortunately our team lost.

The backdrop at the dance Saturday night...Homecoming at Hogwarts is now in the history books.

Homecoming at Hogwarts

Yep, that's right...PCHS' 2008 theme is Homecoming at Hogwarts! This next week (9/29-10/4) is going to be a whirlwind of spirit dress-up days, contests, class games, float-building, a parade, football game, and culminating in the all-important homecoming dance on Saturday night. And yes, yours truly, gets to take part in each & every activity (Arlan is Student Council sponsor). Some of these activities include:

• broom races
• bobbing for apples in a cauldron
• dressing like Harry Potter (cloak, broom, glasses, and lightening scar included) and running through an obstacle course which culminates in a quiddich match (minus the flying).
  
• dressing like your favorite professor
• class color days ... seniors - Gryffindor red & gold; juniors - Slytherien green & silver; Sophomores - Ravenclaw blue & bronze; and the poor freshman are Hufflepuff black & yellow
• tug of war
• entrance to the dance meets at platform 9 3/4 :)
  

Oh yes, it is should be a great week! I'll post pictures as the week progresses...we are planning on having a slow weekend to rest up for next week!

So all my blogging friends...what event looks most interesting to you?

"Lifesong" & Youth Jam

Ah, some freshmen in high school perspective...

So last Friday, I began to introduce my freshmen World History students to the concept of being a patron during the Renaissance in Europe...for those of you wondering what the Renaissance was, it's time period of history (1300-1600) that created a rebirth of art & learning (think Da Vinci, Michaelangelo, etc.) & if you were a patron of the arts, you tended to be wealthy & give money, support, time, etc. to artists, sculptors, & writers. While I've probably just bored you for the last few sentences, the data is important to appreciate the story; and here goes...

Mrs. Miller: So let me give you a modern day example of patronage...I am a patron of Banana Republic. Who knows what B.R. is?

Student #1 (overzealous teenage girl, flapping her raised hand wildly): It's a clothing store!

Mrs. Miller: Yep, that's right; unfortunately, I probably patronize B.R. too much :) Here's another example: I also patronize an organization called Lifesong. Lifesong is a non-profit organization that works with helping orphans world-wide & educating people about orphans. Has anybody heard of Lifesong?

(sidebar: I probably should have said "Lifesong for Orphans" at this point)

Student #2 (suave freshman boy raises his hand): I've heard of Lifesong.

Mrs. Miller (shocked! my heart is leaping through my wide smile...I'm thinking Andy, Gary, someone must have talked at his church...and he's probably a little Christian boy-Yeah!): REALLY! That's great...how do you know about Lifesong?

(Here's the kicker...)

Student #2: Well, it's Casting Crown's song!

Hmm, not quite the answer my heart was hoping for, but it certainly did bring a smile to my face & of course, I didn't have the heart to embarrass him & tell him that we were talking about completely different ideas.

...and I'm glad I didn't embarrass him because just today as I was going around the last 10 minutes of class, helping students with homework (and general organization skills - after all, they are freshmen), Student #2 hands me a note; yep, that's right - a note! A handwritten, "I put effort into this" note! Turns out he probably does have some Christian background/influence, as the note turned out to be a hand-drawn pamphlet advertising "Youth Jam": a youth group get-together this Sat. night in Morton from 5-10pm...food, games, worship, etc. will all be there & he invited me! Isn't that great...I still am smiling from my little note :) Furthermore, I feel blessed that Jesus has used me & my words to touch him in a way that he, a 15 year old boy in high school, trusts me with an invite such as this! Praise Jesus!

Side note #2: the host church for Youth Jam is directly behind our condo here in Morton! If we go, I'll keep you posted. :)

Reality check time

Today, Friday August 15, marks the last day of summer vacation for both of us; while "vacation" technically was filled with many working days at Sylvan Learning Center for me & going back to Gridley to help on the family farm for Arlan (and sometimes me :), life as we call summer is over! School starts Monday, August 18th. Yep, the PCHS hallways & rooms G408 and G403 will soon again be vacated by Mrs. & Mr. Miller respectively. We will both be teaching World & U.S. History to freshman and juniors while Arlan will continue to be one of four student council advisors. So ready or not, I guess here the students come! Stay tuned throughout the school year, as I'm guessing many a post will be in regards to our job(s)...you just never know what the average day of being a high school teacher means!