The First Day of School... For the Students.

Today new pencils were sharpened, new paper was put in brand new binders. Lockers were adorned to make them look more homey and personal. Teachers were bright eyed and bushy tailed as they welcomed each student into his/her classroom. Busses had no clue who was supposed to be riding them. Students bustled around the school trying to find friends and catch up over what happened this summer. Much prayer went out over the students and the school year, which was a neat experience. The classrooms are now equipped with enough paper towels and tissues to wall paper the entire classroom. With Flu season upon us, all of these tissues and hand sanitizers could be gone soon, but we hope not. It is neat to put faces to names, some of which came up often even before the class commenced. The attention starved, the struggling, and the allergic... peanut and shellfish to be exact. It seems like kids these days are allergic to everything; at least the egg, milk, and chocolate allergies are in the other room, but that still means we have to be careful with parties. :-( All in all it was a good day, even though the kids were tested and ruled out. I ended the day a little tired from waking up so much earlier than normal and grading over a hundred math fact papers. It was fun having the same last name as my teacher and the kids had fun with that too. I can't wait to get to know each of them a little better. I'm hoping that tomorrows game and activity will provide me with insight as to who each of these special ones are. It is sometimes hard to remember in the midst of the day to day, that each shild has be gifted specially by God and he/she is in our lives and classroom for a reason.

A Start That Included A LOT of Paper Work

Wednesday the student teaching journey started with ORIENTATION. A word that puts fear into many, as paperwork and information overload are what usually characterize this activity. The proctors always try to make it fun, but it is still a lot of information. They did make us lunch and I got to see one of my roommates that graduated. This made lunch even more enjoyable.

We did have a scavenger hunt through out the handbook, which was a fun way to get us to know the most important data from the handbook, even though we were supposed to read that thing months ago (even so it was a good review). After receiving all of this information, I set to work like a house on fire (like normal me) and now have a really cute binder that I have scrapbooked and organized. I can't wait to embellish it more when I can use the Cricut :-)

Well, I am readying myself for another day of ORIENTATION and must head to bed.

Getting Ready to Start the Rest of My Life

I am getting ready to start my Student Teaching and loving the fact that I will soon be able to put into practice everything I have learned over the past four years. I feel that I am called to be a teacher by God and love working with students who school doesn't come easy to. I excited about the challenges, tears, and rewards that await me when I walk into the classroom.
My first adventure in student teaching will be at a Christian school near Philly teaching 6th grade Science. The IRONIC thing is that my co-operating teacher and I have the same last name... weird. So these poor 6th graders will have a Miss and a Mrs. with the same last name. I might end up going with Miss L. What do you think?