School daze

Published 9:36 am Thursday, October 2, 2008

It’s been nothing but excitement at Hollandale Christian School ever since the announcement came that teacher Susan DeVries and her family would be receiving a home makeover as part of the ABC show “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” this week.

Principal Lisa Vos said after she received a call from the producers Tuesday saying the DeVries family had been selected for a home makeover, all the teachers and students went into the gym at the school.

She told the children the news and they erupted with “lots of cheers and lots of tears,” Vos said.

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“She’s part of our family here at Hollandale Christian,” she said. “She’s not just a teacher down the hall.”

Vos and Stephanie McCarthy, a fifth- and sixth-grade teacher at the school, said Susan began teaching at Hollandale Christian straight out of college.

A short while later, she met her husband, Dirk, got married and had three children, April, Derik and Hanna. Vos and McCarthy didn’t know exactly when, but they said Susan took a few years off around the time her children were born.

She’s been back at the school now for somewhere between eight and 10 years, Vos estimated.

Susan now teaches music to all 80 of the students in the school, along with teaching first-grade reading. “She is fabulous with the kids,” Vos said. “She meets their needs where they’re at.”

The principal explained that Susan likes to look for a different perspective to teach reading. She understands that reading is an important foundation in life and treats it as such, Vos said.

In addition to these duties, Dirk drives the bus for the school in the morning, and Susan drives it in the afternoon.

“They’re very deserving,” McCarthy said. “They give so much.”

McCarthy described Susan as a person with an upbeat personality, who is fun to teach with.

“She works really well with the students and is dedicated to their education,” she said. Not to mention she’s very gifted musically and artistically.

She often helps out with the spring musicals for the school, and has even written music for the school’s weekly chapel service before.

“It speaks to her talent and also her commitment,” Vos said.

First-graders Ryan Anderson and Emelia West said their favorite thing about Susan’s reading class is that she reads books to them — their favorite of which is “The Giving Tree.”

They also love learning to play musical instruments in Susan’s music class, the 6-year-old students said.

Fifth-grader Dillon Kelly said Susan is a “very good music teacher who doesn’t get mad easily.”

“She’s really nice to the kids,” fellow fifth-grader Toni DeBoer said.

Kelly and DeBoer said during music time, Susan has taught them to play with long plastic tubes called Boomwhackers, which are made different lengths. The longer ones have a lower pitch, and the shorter ones have a higher pitch. That’s their favorite part of class, they said.

Susan has also made drums out of coffee cans for the children to use in class.

They have some unconventional musical instruments along with a few other more conventional ones.

DeBoer said when the whole school found out the DeVries were chosen for the makeover, “it was really loud in the gym. We were all screaming.”

The excitement continued into Wednesday as the “Extreme Makeover” crew filmed at the school.

Vos said they’re hoping to get all of the students to the new house next Tuesday to support the DeVries family when they see their house for the first time.

“We’re thankful they were selected,” Vos said. “This will be great for the family — it’s nice for them to be on the receiving end.”

All three of the DeVries children have gone to Hollandale Christian School. Hanna, 12, is still in seventh grade there.