East Rochester School District has just lost a fantastic science teacher. She lost her battle with cancer on Friday night. Out of respect for her I would like to commemorate the most memorable teaching experiences she produced from the eyes of one of her students, me.
Mrs. VanGelder taught 8th grade science in our small school district. The 8th grade team was a very tightly knit community with the teachers of all of the disciplines (there is only one of each) collaborating together to ensure a tight knit community among the 8th grade students and to ensure that the students received a lot of support and great learning experiences during a year of their life that is very challenging for many students.
Memories:
-St. Patrick’s day: the room was decorated… as was she (a very tall leprechaun) as students entered the room she welcomed them in an Irish accent and sprinkled their heads with gold glitter (a little Irish magic and good luck)
-Student’s designed and conducted their own investigations, on anything they wanted (at least once). I used the classroom pet rat for mine and studied animal behavior.
-A rat and a giant millipede shared the classroom with us.
-Students made their own “contraptions” that had to include a certain number of concepts we had covered, ie. pulleys, levers, etc, and they had to connect with other students in the class so in the end we had one really long contraption that would move a marble from one side of the room to the other. (Mouse trap style – if you remember the game)
-Students had to write a paper on the physics of _______. We could pick anything of interest to us. I wrote mine on horseback riding. It is still one of my most favorite papers that I ever wrote.
-Bake sales! Our homeroom was the king of the 8th grade bake sales for the 8th grade class trip! Competition may be detrimental to some, but 8th grade is all about competing for a common goal – raising money for the 8th grade class trip! Homerooms competed to raise money and win the “Golden T.” This created a very strong, but friendly, rivalry between Mrs. VG’s homeroom and Mr. Hendy’s (SS) homeroom. The teachers were definitely driving forces in this rivalry/competition and really made the community present in that 8th grade hallway.
-AGRICULTURAL AWARENESS DAY! Mrs. VG lived in “cow country” out in Geneseo and she was struck with the lack of knowledge of “cow country” even the students in our small suburbian village had. She then took it upon her self to disrupt the entire 8th grade curriculum for one day and create a day long Agricultural Awareness Day! Every year she would bring in a cow, seriously. She would have friends of hers bring in one of their small cows to stand in the hallway for the kids to see and to touch. The farmers answered questions from the kids. A Dairy Princess would come and talk to the kids about milking cows, how butter and cream is made, and about life on a farm. One year she filled Mr. Hendy’s classroom with Hay and put roosters in there (Other times she would bring those types of things into the courtyard near by. Some times she had high school students and high school grads come back to help her run the show or perform as cowboys, cowgirls, country singers for the kids. I came back a couple times to help out. What a great learning experience for the kids!
-Above all else she was a very supportive person who was always there for you to talk to, to help you through your 8th grade drama and support you in any endeavor you chose to pursue.
There are many other things I could write about. She was an amazing woman. I observed her teaching on the first or second day of school in East Rochester, which was a week or so after the first day of school in the city. She was introducing laboratory rules to the kids. She dressed up with everything that was NOT safe laboratory attire. Chewing gum, long blonde wig on that reached down to her belt, a lab coat un-buttoned, long sleeves, sandles, a pop can in her hand, long jewlery, etc. She threw in a southern accent for fun (not sure if that is a lab safety issue…careful Sabrina! haha!). Then the kids had to pick out what was un-safe and these rules were written down. All I could think was “what a fabulous way to discuss a rather boring, yet essential, topic!”).
I wish I had had a chance to gather more resources from her before the cancer came back. Much has been lost. However, a lot of her still lives on through her students.
I hope I can do her memory justice and carry some of her inspiring teaching practices through to my teaching. She really was an inspiration to me. When I decided to become a teacher, I wanted to be like her.
I love you Mrs. VanGelder! Enjoy your early retirement! It feels unjust to us, but you deserve to be in a better place and I believe that is where you are. You will be missed.
The students made the bright pink antibodies for my pathogens 
