Privilege Cards and Home Visits
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 the commissary, etc.) or SOFA stamp (sort of a visa supplied by the base) there. It was about a 20-minute drive to the base and then we spent three hours in the card office and got nothing done. At first, we thought we were getting IDs and the lady at the desk said we didn't have the appropriate paperwork for that. We spent a while getting the school secretary to try and find that paperwork for us and send it to the card office, only to have another guy (Mr. Jones) come in and, after discovering we were student teachers, inform us that we did not, in fact, need IDs. We were actually getting privilege cards and installation passes. He said he'd be able to help us in a bit. While we waited another guy did our SOFA stamps and got those put in our passports, so check mark for one thing! Unfortunately, before Mr. Jones was available to help us, we had to leave. Mrs. Greer and I had a home visit at 12:30 that we needed to get back for. So we headed back to Ramstein, dropped Devina off with her teacher, met up with the paraprofessional for our class, Mrs. Rast, and headed to our first home visit!
Here's how our home visit routine went. Mrs. Greer would introduce us all then she and I would talk with the student while Mrs. Rast talked to the parent(s). We had some questions about the student that we would ask them while we got to know them a little. The first question was the students' name so we would ask them to help us spell it. Every little nugget knew how to spell their name! So proud of them already! Then how old they were: 5 across the board, one little girl just turned 5 at the end of August. Then we'd ask what they wanted to be when they grew up. We had a horse trainer, a construction man, a police officer, a climber, a writer, some "I don't know"s, umm oh goodness. I can't remember anymore; they're all blurring together now! Next, we'd ask them their favorite food (lots of veggie lovers: cucumbers, broccoli, and tomatoes!). Then we'd ask them their favorite thing to do and their favorite book. Since we were speaking with 5-year-olds the conversations often went off on tangents, but that was good because it let the students feel more comfortable and gave us more opportunities to observe their speech. At first Mrs. Greer mostly lead the discussion. After a few, I took over.
Once we were finished talking to the student we would go and talk with the parents and Mrs. Rast would talk with the student. With the parent's Mrs. Greer went over an information sheet that the parents had filled out. It had information about what the student likes to do, what upsets them, how they like to be comforted, any concerns the parents may have noticed with the child's speech or fine and gross motor skills, whether they were left- or right-handed, if they could read yet, and any other concerns. Then she would walk through the student's D.O.T binder with the parent. D.O.T. = Daily Organization Tool. She'd explain what goes in the DOT, the money pouch, the behavior management system, the reading calendar, the home and back folder, and then the A, B, Cs of Mrs. Greer's class. I pretty much just sat there during all that, but on the second visit on Wednesday I took over explaining the DOT binder.
On Monday there were just three visits. The first visit was on base with a little boy. He was so cute! Ok, they were all cute and instead of saying that each time I'm just gonna say it this once... So yes, on Monday it was a visit to two boys and one girl. All so cute. All really excited for Kindergarten. Maybe as excited as me ;)
Monday also brought some much need and much appreciated good news! When I was explaining the whole living situation and getting on base issues to Mrs. Rast, it was revealed that she not only lives in Landstuhl but that she lives in Landstuhl Atzel, which is the hill where we live! She said she'd be able to pick us up to get on base each morning! She also was appalled by the amount we were paying to live in our Airbnb, saying that what each of us was paying should have been the total together. She knows a guy who owns a lot of rental property in the area and said she'd ask him about places closer to base, possibly in the town of Ramstein that is actually within walking distance. So if moving on base doesn't work that may be an option for us.
On Tuesday morning, Mrs. Rast picked us up at 7:20 and we headed to base to drop of Devina and meet up with Mrs. Greer. That morning we had three visits starting at 9:30. Again, they were all so cute! One of the boys that day was an active little fellow who really really liked to climb, as we were told multiple times, and had "energy over the maximum amount!" in his own twice-repeated words. Shortly after coming into his home he braced himself in a doorway and climbed until his head was touching the top of the doorframe. He was adorable, but I have a feeling his maximum energy may tire me out to the maximum amount!
At the conclusion of Tuesday's home visits, Mrs. Greer took Devina and me back to that other base. We waited for about two hours and were finally able to see Mr. Jones, only to hit another stumbling block. Our privilege passes required 1x1 photos and the passport photos we had brought were much too big. He walked with us over to the PX on that base, but it had closed 30 minutes prior. We had to leave the base, go to a shopping center nearby, and use the photo booth thing to take new pictures. But, they didn't have 1x1! They had more of the large passport photos or it could print a sheet of 16 miniature photos that were about .7x.9. We prayed it work and headed back to base. He gave us some crap about it but decided it was fine. And 30 minutes later we had our privilege cards! In total, we spent about 8 hours in that office trying to get everything we needed. A huge shout out to Mr. Jones for being beyond helpful and even staying after the office officially closed to help us!!
I cannot tell you what a relief it was to be able to go to base on Wednesday morning, right up to the gate, hand our passes over, and be on with no trouble! It was such a hassle having to stop at the visitor center thing, wait in line, get a single-entry pass, go back to the car, and then join the line to get on base. Even if we had been on the base earlier that day each entry required a pass and we'd have to stop again.
Wednesday was busy, busy, busy! We had seven home visits from 9-3! We were driving all over the country side through one quaint village after another. The landscape was gorgeous! Some of the families lived up on hills with astonishing views of the surrounding hills and countryside. One of the little girls we meet has a pretty serious speech impediment. I could understand her most of the time if I knew the context, but I think it will take a while to get used to her speech patterns. When we asked about her favorite book we figured out the first two words were "Three Little" but could not get the last word. It sounded like "bear" to us, but it was "pig", which, duh, that makes so much sense. But we had to ask her mom for help because we just could not figure it out on our own. It will be an interesting challenge and good learning experience to work with her over the next semester.
Mrs. Rast got us ice cream on the way home. Just look at that beautiful hazelnutty creation. All of the teachers have been so incredibly sweet and helpful!
Thursday was more low-key. Mrs. Greer likes to leave one day free of home visits so that she can spend it in the classroom getting it all setup. And that's what Thursday was for. Oh, wait, first: When we headed into base in the morning the guy at the gate had never seen our card before. He had to ask like three other people before he finally decided to just let us on. Once on base, everything was good. Mrs. Greer and Mrs. Rast liked my computer skills as I quickly helped create or fix name place cards, tags, and other things. The day passed by fast and then it was home to just relax and read.
Devina and I went to a restaurant in our neighborhood and got some more delicious schnitzel, this time pork, and I tried spatzel. It's a German mac and cheese and boy was it good! Those are the only pictures I have for this post...mmm food!
On Friday morning we hit a bump. This time they would not let us on base with our privilege cards. We were told it wouldn't work to get on Ramstein, ever. So we had to turn around and go back to the visitor center, sign in, and get back in line. Mrs. Rast has a daughter in 6th grade and she was incredibly stressed about being late for her fifth day of middle school; I felt sooooo bad. When we got to the elementary we briefly tried to figure out the base pass situation, but then I had to go to a training and Mrs. Greer and Mrs. Rast had the second to last home visit. My training was about the benchmark reading assessment the school uses, which is based on running records and the comprehension check that follows. I've used running records before so it wasn't too hard to follow. That was from 8:30-14:30. Sadly, I missed the class open house at 13:00, but I got back just in time for the last home visit. The family had just PCSed to the base and still had temporary housing so they met us in the classroom. The little girl had the longest last name, but she could spell her whole name easy as pie!
Also, we figured out how to get whatever card we actually need to be able to get on base but won't be able to get it until Tuesday morning. So here's to hoping that goes right next week!
Oops, I wrote a mini novel again. How many of you are still here? Seriously though, are these entirely too long? Because if enough people tell me to I will actually work towards being a bit more concise. You just gotta let me know! There's a comment section at the end of the post... As Blaise Pascal, Benjamin Franklin, John Locke, and a bunch of other dudes have said in some form or another: "I didn't have enough time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one."
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 (
Here's how our home visit routine went. Mrs. Greer would introduce us all then she and I would talk with the student while Mrs. Rast talked to the parent(s). We had some questions about the student that we would ask them while we got to know them a little. The first question was the students' name so we would ask them to help us spell it. Every little nugget knew how to spell their name! So proud of them already! Then how old they were: 5 across the board, one little girl just turned 5 at the end of August. Then we'd ask what they wanted to be when they grew up. We had a horse trainer, a construction man, a police officer, a climber, a writer, some "I don't know"s, umm oh goodness. I can't remember anymore; they're all blurring together now! Next, we'd ask them their favorite food (lots of veggie lovers: cucumbers, broccoli, and tomatoes!). Then we'd ask them their favorite thing to do and their favorite book. Since we were speaking with 5-year-olds the conversations often went off on tangents, but that was good because it let the students feel more comfortable and gave us more opportunities to observe their speech. At first Mrs. Greer mostly lead the discussion. After a few, I took over.
Once we were finished talking to the student we would go and talk with the parents and Mrs. Rast would talk with the student. With the parent's Mrs. Greer went over an information sheet that the parents had filled out. It had information about what the student likes to do, what upsets them, how they like to be comforted, any concerns the parents may have noticed with the child's speech or fine and gross motor skills, whether they were left- or right-handed, if they could read yet, and any other concerns. Then she would walk through the student's D.O.T binder with the parent. D.O.T. = Daily Organization Tool. She'd explain what goes in the DOT, the money pouch, the behavior management system, the reading calendar, the home and back folder, and then the A, B, Cs of Mrs. Greer's class. I pretty much just sat there during all that, but on the second visit on Wednesday I took over explaining the DOT binder.
On Monday there were just three visits. The first visit was on base with a little boy. He was so cute! Ok, they were all cute and instead of saying that each time I'm just gonna say it this once... So yes, on Monday it was a visit to two boys and one girl. All so cute. All really excited for Kindergarten. Maybe as excited as me ;)
Monday also brought some much need and much appreciated good news! When I was explaining the whole living situation and getting on base issues to Mrs. Rast, it was revealed that she not only lives in Landstuhl but that she lives in Landstuhl Atzel, which is the hill where we live! She said she'd be able to pick us up to get on base each morning! She also was appalled by the amount we were paying to live in our Airbnb, saying that what each of us was paying should have been the total together. She knows a guy who owns a lot of rental property in the area and said she'd ask him about places closer to base, possibly in the town of Ramstein that is actually within walking distance. So if moving on base doesn't work that may be an option for us.
On Tuesday morning, Mrs. Rast picked us up at 7:20 and we headed to base to drop of Devina and meet up with Mrs. Greer. That morning we had three visits starting at 9:30. Again, they were all so cute! One of the boys that day was an active little fellow who really really liked to climb, as we were told multiple times, and had "energy over the maximum amount!" in his own twice-repeated words. Shortly after coming into his home he braced himself in a doorway and climbed until his head was touching the top of the doorframe. He was adorable, but I have a feeling his maximum energy may tire me out to the maximum amount!
At the conclusion of Tuesday's home visits, Mrs. Greer took Devina and me back to that other base. We waited for about two hours and were finally able to see Mr. Jones, only to hit another stumbling block. Our privilege passes required 1x1 photos and the passport photos we had brought were much too big. He walked with us over to the PX on that base, but it had closed 30 minutes prior. We had to leave the base, go to a shopping center nearby, and use the photo booth thing to take new pictures. But, they didn't have 1x1! They had more of the large passport photos or it could print a sheet of 16 miniature photos that were about .7x.9. We prayed it work and headed back to base. He gave us some crap about it but decided it was fine. And 30 minutes later we had our privilege cards! In total, we spent about 8 hours in that office trying to get everything we needed. A huge shout out to Mr. Jones for being beyond helpful and even staying after the office officially closed to help us!!
I cannot tell you what a relief it was to be able to go to base on Wednesday morning, right up to the gate, hand our passes over, and be on with no trouble! It was such a hassle having to stop at the visitor center thing, wait in line, get a single-entry pass, go back to the car, and then join the line to get on base. Even if we had been on the base earlier that day each entry required a pass and we'd have to stop again.
Wednesday was busy, busy, busy! We had seven home visits from 9-3! We were driving all over the country side through one quaint village after another. The landscape was gorgeous! Some of the families lived up on hills with astonishing views of the surrounding hills and countryside. One of the little girls we meet has a pretty serious speech impediment. I could understand her most of the time if I knew the context, but I think it will take a while to get used to her speech patterns. When we asked about her favorite book we figured out the first two words were "Three Little" but could not get the last word. It sounded like "bear" to us, but it was "pig", which, duh, that makes so much sense. But we had to ask her mom for help because we just could not figure it out on our own. It will be an interesting challenge and good learning experience to work with her over the next semester.
Mrs. Rast got us ice cream on the way home. Just look at that beautiful hazelnutty creation. All of the teachers have been so incredibly sweet and helpful!
Thursday was more low-key. Mrs. Greer likes to leave one day free of home visits so that she can spend it in the classroom getting it all setup. And that's what Thursday was for. Oh, wait, first: When we headed into base in the morning the guy at the gate had never seen our card before. He had to ask like three other people before he finally decided to just let us on. Once on base, everything was good. Mrs. Greer and Mrs. Rast liked my computer skills as I quickly helped create or fix name place cards, tags, and other things. The day passed by fast and then it was home to just relax and read.
Devina and I went to a restaurant in our neighborhood and got some more delicious schnitzel, this time pork, and I tried spatzel. It's a German mac and cheese and boy was it good! Those are the only pictures I have for this post...mmm food!
On Friday morning we hit a bump. This time they would not let us on base with our privilege cards. We were told it wouldn't work to get on Ramstein, ever. So we had to turn around and go back to the visitor center, sign in, and get back in line. Mrs. Rast has a daughter in 6th grade and she was incredibly stressed about being late for her fifth day of middle school; I felt sooooo bad. When we got to the elementary we briefly tried to figure out the base pass situation, but then I had to go to a training and Mrs. Greer and Mrs. Rast had the second to last home visit. My training was about the benchmark reading assessment the school uses, which is based on running records and the comprehension check that follows. I've used running records before so it wasn't too hard to follow. That was from 8:30-14:30. Sadly, I missed the class open house at 13:00, but I got back just in time for the last home visit. The family had just PCSed to the base and still had temporary housing so they met us in the classroom. The little girl had the longest last name, but she could spell her whole name easy as pie!
Also, we figured out how to get whatever card we actually need to be able to get on base but won't be able to get it until Tuesday morning. So here's to hoping that goes right next week!
Oops, I wrote a mini novel again. How many of you are still here? Seriously though, are these entirely too long? Because if enough people tell me to I will actually work towards being a bit more concise. You just gotta let me know! There's a comment section at the end of the post... As Blaise Pascal, Benjamin Franklin, John Locke, and a bunch of other dudes have said in some form or another: "I didn't have enough time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one."
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| In case you were curious about the temperature difference |
I love them! I don't care how long or short they are I will read every word!! Now, just a few comments: 1) I wasn't surprised the only pictures you added were of food :-) 2) I'm amazed the children's favorite food were veggie. What? No, pizza?? 3) How's "energy boy" doing? You are going to be an awesome teacher, <3 Keep writing
ReplyDeleteI love your commitment! I think I'll be imposing a word count on myself to keep it from getting so long. Then people won't feel daunted at the thought of reading it and I also won't dread writing it as much. 1) Of course they were food pictures! 2) I was surprised too! We did a few of the more "typical" favorite foods like ice cream and pasta, but a lot of veggie lovers. 3) "Energy boy" doesn't want to do stuff he doesn't want to do. He gets "tired" a lot and tries to stop participating. Love you Aunt Gwena and thanks!
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