Teaching, Traveling, and Trying to Keep it Together

I had thought about doing a post right after the first week of school, but that obviously did not happen. Then I thought I'd do a post right after the first month. That did not happen either. So here we are, about halfway through and I am finally posting about school! Last I wrote about anything related to school was during my second week here when we were doing home visits to the students. A lot has happened since then! We've been in school for 37 days now; I know because we count them every morning. I would say I've taken over more than half the class most of the time? A Kindergarten setting is a little different than most because so much of the first few weeks is just establishing routines and getting the students used to being in school. Here's a rundown of how a typical school day goes: 8:15 - students arrive in the classroom 8:15-8:35 - check-in and Brain Gym 8:40-9:10ish - greeting song, morning message, calendar, share time, GoNoodle 9:10ish-10:05 - l...

I had such high hopes for staying on top of blogging this time around…yet here we are, over a month since my last post. What can I say? I’m busy and also lazy. Anyways, guess I’ll get started.... Ever heard of Luxembourg? I wouldn’t be surprised if you hadn’t. It’s a tiny little country situated between Belgium, France, and Germany. Its land mass is about the same size as Rhode Island and the population is similar to Tucson. The country was never on my bucket list, but I suggest that you add it to yours now! It was a three-day weekend (Sept 2-4) that I didn’t want to waste, I found cheap train tickets and a cheap hotel, so I figured, why not go to Luxembourg? With one train and a bus, it’s about a two and half hour journey to Luxembourg and the scenery is rolling green hills the whole way. I got to Luxembourg City on Saturday around noon, checked into my hotel, and went to explore. I was struck by just how pretty the city is. The city center and old town are situated on this o...

Long time no....write? Read? Hmmm. Anyways. Here I am again! Enjoy this lengthy post with very few pictures. This week was Ramstein's official first week of school and the first week of my placement. However, kindergarten at Ramstein doesn't start until the day after Labor Day and this week was used for home visits. This allows the teacher to meet the student at their home where they are comfortable. It really helps the students who are shy or nervous, because when they come in for the first day of school they have already met their teacher! It also gives an opportunity for the teacher to meet with the parents, answer any questions they have, and share information that will be helpful for their child's first year of school. On Monday morning, Mrs. Greer picked us up and took us on base for a bit before we headed to another base to work on some paperwork. For some reason, even though Ramstein is massive , we cannot get our privilege card ( allows us on base , to shop at ...

Originally, I thought that I should have a set time to blog. Maybe once a week, every Sunday, or something like that. However, I doubt I would actually stick to that sooooo enjoy my random and irregular blogs whenever they pop up! Also, I apologize if you've been through my Facebook album and already seen some of this. I think once school really gets started these posts will be more directly related to my student teaching and my Facebook album more the travel (since I won't have many photos I can post from school online). And if you haven't checked out my Facebook album make sure you do that! I have a lot more pictures on there and usually post caption descriptions as well. There's a link in the sidebar if we aren't already friends. Let's see, last time I posted was right after I got here. Quite a bit has happened since then, but I'll try to stick to the more important ones and be brief. On Sunday we met Devina's teacher and she took us to an Italian...

It's 20:32 on Saturday night as I sit down to write this. I've had about 9 hours of sleep in the last three days. I am doing all I can to stay up and hopefully prevent jet lag. The last few days have been a bit of a whirlwind, but I am in Germany and I am ready to tackle this crazy adventure! Did it take me three days to get here? Nope. So why have I slept so little? Well you see, I was determined to finish a book series before coming here. I stayed up all night Wednesday to do so and went to bed around 7 AM and got up about 3 and half hours later. Thursday I said goodbye to Cane's with my last order of delicious chicken strips and Cane's sauce for the next four months. Then Thursday night my aunt put together the cutest little going away dinner. Some photos from the photo booth And, of course, I did not actually manage to pack until Thursday night and did not finish until 1:30. I never really sleep well before a trip, too nervous/excited. So it was a fitful r...