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Teaching different grades By DAWN SLADE Working at a small, private Christian school has afforded Carol Van Someren a unique opportunity. She gets to work with younger children and older children, and teach a variety of subjects. Van Someren, whoís known to her students as "Mrs. V," currently teaches third and fourth grade students, but she also teaches a transitional math (pre-algebra) class to five seventh and eighth grade boys at Community Christian School in Pease. And to watch her teach at both levels is to see what a truly exceptional teacher she is. With her younger class, Van Someren commands the room. The students are attentive, quiet and ready to learn. The moment one starts to drift away, she casually walks over, gently places her hand on his shoulder to get his attention and continues informing the class of the math project they will be working on. No words needed to be spoken. The student knew his attention was required by Van Someren and he complied. Some background Van Someren was raised in Cicero, near Chicago, Ill. She graduated from Timothy Christian High School in Elmhurst, Ill. in 1980. Van Someren then went on to Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich. where she obtained her bachelor of arts in education in 1984. Shortly after college, she moved to Pease with her husband, Andy, whom she met in college. They have two boys - Matthew, who is in first grade, and Ryan, who is in seventh. Van Someren has been primarily teaching third and fourth grade students over the past 19 years, but sheís also taught fifth and sixth graders. And for the past five years, she has one class of seventh and eighth grade students, which this year includes her oldest son. She has also taught summer school for Milaca Public Schools and coached volleyball for 10 years at Milaca High School. "I always liked school as a student and I always admired my teacher, so it was something that interested me from the start," Van Someren said. She also likes to read, which is her number one hobby. Van Someren enjoys mostly fiction books like those authored by Danielle Steele and Lori Wick. Another pastime of Van Somerenís is tending to her flower and vegetable gardens. As for entertainment, she tends to stick to documentaries and news shows like 20/20 and 60 minutes. But, she admits being a big fan of CSI. Her favorite movie is the "Sound of Music," but says she doesnít envision herself singing with her students anytime soon. Back in the class "Thereís different ways to solve things," she tells the younger students as they sort game chips into sets and groups for their math assignment on division. As the students divvy up the 30 chips into rows or piles of 10, they begin to discover that not everyone comes to the same answer in the same way. "Share with us - how did you split your pile of 30 chips?" she asks the students. "I think youíll start to see a pattern using your multiplication skills, but I still want you to use your counters," she tells the class of 14. Sitting in on the class, itís easy to see which ones "get it" right away and which ones have more difficulty in reaching the answer. This is one of the toughest challenges for Van Someren. "Trying to meet the needs of every kid," she says, is difficult. "Kids are so different and how do you reach the kids in the different ways they learn. You have to try so many different things. Thatís the toughest, is finding out how each child learns best and then being able to meet their needs." As the division assignment continues, the studentsí brains are working hard and one boy, who struggled at the beginning, says, "Hey, this is getting easy." Throughout the lesson, Van Someren encourages the students to use skills they learned in other classes, like science. She also constantly offers different phrases to reach all the students and help them understand the task at hand. As she goes around the room looking over their work, she offers kind words of encouragement to the students, points out where they might want to double check their work, and gently gives them a squeeze on the shoulder for reassurance. The best part of teaching, Van Someren says, is the relationships you build with kids and their families. "At our school, you get the siblings and itís really fun to build the relationships," Van Someren said of the small school community. A change in style Mid-day her focus shifts from younger students to seventh and eighth graders. As she enters the class, her attitude immediately adjusts to deal with the five junior high boys in front of her. Van Someren enjoys the teaching change, saying, "Itís enlightening. The seventh and eighth graders can tell me where they are getting stuck or having problems, whereas the third and fourth graders canít. They just say, ëI donít get it.í" Itís easy to see that Van Someren can let her guard down a little and have fun with the older students. But, she can also push them harder, too. On this particular day, she returns a math test. On the test is a question which asks, "How would you teach a younger sibling to add a negative number with a positive number?" There were five different answers, with only one person getting it correct. But, rather than give them the correct answer, Van Someren offers a unique opportunity for them to figure it out on their own. She invites five of her younger students to come into the classroom so the older students can teach them how to add negative and positive numbers - using the answer they gave on their test. Not only does the activity help the older students better understand what they should have written, it also gives the younger ones a chance to learn and "shine." "Weíll see if your system works," she tells the junior high students. Shortly into the learning lesson, one of the older students shouts with excitement, "Hey, my kid gets it." But as problems are added to the board, some of the older students realize their original answer doesnít always work, in particular when the negative number is larger than the positive number. "You have taught the seventh and eighth graders something important today," Van Someren tells the youngsters as they leave. The atmosphere is definitely lighter, but the lessons are bigger. What it means to her On teaching at a Christian school, Van Someren says, "For me, what I like is that we have the opportunity to integrate the faith with the learning. We can openly encourage kids in that direction. "We can tie in things they talk about in church with school. I like the triangle. Weíre able to mix church, home and school." She spoke of the schoolís ability to support a student who went on a missionary trip to Mexico. "We were able to stand behind her and make a small impact. Then, she could come back to school and share that experience," Van Someren said. "You know you can say things to the students and the parents will be behind you. You can prepare them for a life of service," she added. Being able to pray together following the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11 was beneficial, Van Someren said. "The Sept. 11 attacks really brought an awareness of ëcountryí to the kids," Van Someren said. "I think they realize now how much we have compared to other countries. I think that was close to home and in some ways thatís sad, itís brought the whole idea of war around, and what our responsibilities are. But, Iím happy to see the pride. It raised a lot of questions and interest in American history." When President George W. Bush made a challenge to students to donate a dollar, the students at Community Christian School decided to up that by selling hot dogs to raise even more funds. "To have it come from the kids and say, ëwe need to do somethingí to make them look outside of their own needs, was really good," Van Someren added. When asked if there was anything she could change about the school system, the only change she felt strongly about was trying to encourage the love of reading. "I would continue to push for parents to read with their children. Itís a lifelong skill," Van Someren said. And what does she enjoy most about teaching? "To know every once in a while you do make a difference," she said with a proud smile.
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